Probe against Raj Bhavan staffer in sexual harassment case against WB governor stayed by Calcutta HC

The Calcutta HC stayed proceedings in a first information report filed against Officer on Special Duty to the Governor of West Bengal Sandeep Singh on Friday for allegedly preventing a woman from filing a complaint of sexual harassment against Governor CV Ananda Bose, according to Bar and Bench. 

The woman, a 29-year-old contract employee at Kolkata's Raj Bhavan, claimed Bose sexually touched her on April 24 and May 2. On the day of the second incident, she filed a complaint letter with Raj Bhavan's in-charge officer, Scroll.in reported.

The single-judge bench led by Justice Amrita Sinha noted that Singh had previously been granted bail in the case that the Kolkata Police had filed against him and that the inquiry into the matter was still preliminary stage.

Sinha stated that the woman was allegedly locked in a room at the West Bengal Raj Bhavan premises in Kolkata by Singh and other staff members. They allegedly threatened the woman to keep the facts of the alleged sexual harassment a secret from authorities or not to file a complaint against the governor, according to her complaint.

“Whether the ingredients disclosed in the complaint can be treated as wrongful restraint will be decided,” Sinha said in the Friday order. “At this stage, it does not appear that the probe will suffer in any manner if the same is temporarily stayed till June 17.”

Singh argued in his plea that the woman filed the complaint against him on May 7 as an "afterthought," given that the alleged instance of illegal restraint occurred on May 2. He asserted that he was not mentioned in her May 2 original complaint. Singh argued that the accusation of wrongful restraint had grown "improbable" since the complainant had somehow managed to escape the room in which she had been purportedly kept. Singh had attempted to have the first information report against him filed by the Kolkata Police quashed. 

In opposition to the inquiry into Singh being stayed, Advocate General Kishore Datta contended that the improbability of the claims might be determined at a later, more appropriate stage.