JOIN USA day after former Supreme Court judge justice A K Ganguly was indicted by a three-member committee of the apex court for his “unwelcome behaviour” towards a law intern, Delhi Police said on Friday that they will contact the victim to take her account of the incident.
“We are trying to get in touch with the complainant so that we may have her version of the said incident,” said a police officer. “We have contacted the victim through an email and asked her to record her statement. We are awaiting her response,” he added.
Suo motu cognizance
The National Commission of Women (NCW) took suo motu cognizance of the case. “We have issued a notice to justice Ganguly. We wrote to police on November 12 to file an FIR and investigate the case. We have asked them to take action. We have not got a reply yet,” said chairperson Mamta Sharma.
Considering the state of women in the country, people must support harassment victims and not those who perpetrate such crimes,” said NCW chairperson Mamata Sharma.
A notice has been sent to Justice Ganguly to explain his position post the indictment. Another notice has been sent to Delhi Police commissioner as to why the action was not taken after the girl had narrated the entire incident.
The judges’ panel report said the statement of the law intern, now a lawyer, reveals “an act of unwelcome behaviour (unwelcome verbal or non-verbal conduct of sexual nature) by justice (retd) A K Ganguly with her in a room of Le Meridien Hotel on December 24, 2012 between 8 pm and 10:30 pm”.
The panel comprising justices R M Lodha, H L Dattu and Ranjana Prakash Desai had submitted its report to Chief Justice P Sathasivam on November 28 and also posted it on the apex court website on Thursday.
After going through the report, the apex court decided not to take any action against justice Ganguly stating that he had already retired as a judge when the incident took place.
“Considering the fact that the said intern was not an intern on the roll of the Supreme Court and that the concerned Judge had already demitted office on account of superannuation on the date of the incident, no further follow-up action is required by this court,” the apex court bench hearing the matter said.
The lawyer had first alleged sexual harassment on November 6 in a blog. She repeated the allegation in an interview to Legally India website.The young lawyer, working with Natural Justice: Lawyers for Communities and Environment, claimed to have knowledge of another four girls who were allegedly harassed by other judges in their chambers.
On Wednesday, an FIR was registered against justice Ganguly over sexual harassment allegations in a Kolkata Police station. The FIR was lodged following a complaint by an NGO, which said it decided to file the complaint after Kolkata Police refused to take suo motu action against justice Ganguly.