Raj Bhavan staffers get anticipatory bail from Kolkata's Chief Metropolitan Magistrate court
Kolkata: Three staffers of the Raj Bhavan including the Governor's Officer on Special Duty (OSD) were granted anticipatory bail by the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court in Kolkata on Tuesday.
This comes after the three Raj Bhavan employees were summoned by the Kolkata Police in connection with the molestation charges against West Bengal Governor CV Ananda Bose.
The Kolkata Police have registered an FIR in the Raj Bhavan molestation case, naming the three staffers under Section 341 (Punishment for wrongful restraint) and Section 166 (Public servant disobeying law, with intent to cause injury to any person) of the Indian Penal Code.
The individuals named in the FIR have been identified as SS Rajput, the officer on special duty (OSD), Kusum Chetri who was seen in the CCTV footage carrying a bag, and Sant Lal, a peon at the Raj Bhavan.
The complainant, a contractual staffer at Raj Bhavan, claimed that she was detained by staff members after the incident and pressured to keep quiet on May 2.
The victim has already recorded a statement under Section 164 before a Magistrate in this case.
The West Bengal Governor had earlier launched an initiative enabling any citizen of the state, with the exceptions of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and the state police, to access the CCTV footage of the incident by sending him an email or making a call to the Raj Bhavan.
"Hon'ble Governor Dr. C. V. Ananda Bose has launched a programme SACH KE SAAMNE in the background of the mischievous and fabricated allegations by the police that Raj Bhavan is not sparing the CCTV footage of an incident which is under the illegal and unconstitutional investigation of the police," read a notice posted on the official X handle of Governor Bose.
"Hon'ble Governor has decided that the CCTV footage can be seen by any citizen of West Bengal except politician Mamata Banerjee and her police for the stand they had taken, which is in the public domain," the post read further.
