Delhi Police 'refuse' info on action taken in Justice Ganguly case

Delhi Police have declined to share information about any action taken against former Supreme Court judge Justice A K Ganguly in an alleged sexual harassment case of a law intern, Lucknow based RTI activist Urvashi Sharma said.

Sharma had sought information under the Right to Information Act from Delhi Police about action taken against Justice Ganguly. She sought to know if there was any provision that barred police from taking cognisance of the matter in the way Goa Police had done in the Tarun Tejpal case.

Sharma said that police in their reply said there was no such provision that barred them from taking cognisance of news reports and not filing an FIR. Police also said the matter was still pending inquiry and so a copy of the records could not be provided due to exemption granted under Section 8(1)(h) of the RTI Act, 2005.

Recently, Sharma had written to Delhi Police Commissioner B S Bassi asking him to take suo motto cognisance of the alleged sexual harassment of the law intern by Justice Ganguly.She later filed an RTI query to Delhi Police, seeking to know what action police had taken on her letter to the police chief and against Justice Ganguly. 

The RTI activist asked Bassi to explain why police could not file a suo motto FIR. 

“If Goa Police can file suo motto FIR against Tehelka editor Tarun Tejpal, then Delhi Police should also take a similar step by taking cognisance of news reports and file an FIR against the accused,” Sharma said in her letter.

“As of now Delhi Police have not taken any such action and so we request you to come out of your ‘a bare spectator’ image, prove Delhi Police’s worth by taking courage to take steps to get the FIR filed on the basis of news reports and also ensure further investigation as per law of the land,” Sharma wrote.