Kolkata Police registered an FIR against the three Raj Bhavan employees -an officer on special duty (OSD), a woman pantry staffer and a Group D staff member-for “wrongful restraint” of the junior colleague.The three were sent notices on Saturday, asking them to be present at the Hare Street PS by Monday. “We will probe their roles that evening,” an officer said.
The survivor told TOI she had described her ordeal and the role of the three to the magistrate. “When the governor called me to his chamber on May 2, I insisted on taking the supervisor with me, but the OSD stopped the supervisor thrice. The supervisor agreed to accompany me after persistent requests. But after the incident, the OSD came up to me, asked me to calm down and said he would speak to the governor. The OSD told me not to tell anyone about it,” the woman said, adding the OSD’s attitude towards her changed remarkably since she was molested the first time on April 24. “From being rude, he became polite. I guess he knew about the governor’s act and had come to me on the day of the incident to gauge if I would tell anyone about the harassment,” she said.
The woman said the pantry staffer had snatched away her phone when she was about to call her mother and took her bag away so that she could not leave Raj Bhavan. “She took my phone away on the OSD’s instruction. The OSD told the pantry staffer to drop me home by a Raj Bhavan car and to ensure I did not speak to anyone on the way. The OSD asked everyone, who had come to help me, to leave the room. He told SPG personnel it was a personal matter,” she said. The woman said she was not allowed to visit her quarters or make a call. She said she was kept inside the EPABX room, where she got agitated and the Group-D employee shouted at her. “He said the governor would later talk to me and requested me not to speak to anyone about it,” she said.
Cops said the three were among the nine Raj Bhawan staffers who were asked earlier to join the inquiry but none had responded. This time, police said, they were summoned under CrPC 41 (A) with a specified place and time. Police will seek legal advice on recording the statement of a Raj Bhawan cook, who gave vital information on the May 2 incident.
In the other case, where the governor is accused of sexually harassing an Odishi dancer in Jan last year, police have sought legal advice to take action against the person who bought the dancer tickets to Delhi.