Law clerk threatened to frame Justice Ganguly: WBHRC

 Amid calls for Justice Ganguly's resignation as WBHRC chairman over charges of sexually harassing a law intern, the Commission today took cognisance of an alleged threat by a law clerk to frame its chief in a molestation case.

It has directed the West Bengal State Law Clerks' Council to take immediate action in the matter.

The law clerk from Burdwan Court had allegedly written a letter to Justice (retd) Ganguly on September 18 threatening to file a molestation case against him.

In the letter, she had written, "You are a tout of the CPI(M). How much allowance do you get from the party? You are ungrateful and unworthy of trust. Mamatadi honoured you, but you are trying to embarrass her. Beware, I shall file a case of molestation against you. Don't act big."

The letter was quoted by WBHRC Registrar Rabindranath Samanta who said, "Justice Ganguly has referred the letter to the West Bengal State Law Clerks' Council directing it to take action against Malik within three weeks."

Asked why the letter was being disclosed three months after it was received by the West Bengal Human Rights Commission, Samanta said, "We ignored it considering the honour and prestige of the WBHRC chairman.

"But in the present situation, we thought people should know about it. There might be a conspiracy behind what has happened so far," he said in an apparent reference to the law intern's allegations against the former Supreme Court judge.

The law intern has alleged that Justice Ganguly had sexually harassed her in a hotel room on December 24 last year in Delhi. Justice Ganguly has denied the allegations and also refused to quit his post in the WBHRC.

Several women's rights activists and political leaders from BJP and Trinamool Congress have been demanding the former judge's removal from state human rights commission.
President Pranab Mukherjee has already referred two letters of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to the Union Home Ministry seeking action against Ganguly.