Zee Media Bureau
New Delhi: Retired Justice AK Ganguly, accused by a young woman intern of sexually harassing her, is now facing the ire of West Bengal`s ruling Trinamool Congress, which has demanded his resignation. The former Supreme Court judge is the Chairman of state human rights panel.
"He has no moral right to continue as the chief of the human rights panel. What he did is a big blot to the judicial system of the country and a person who himself is an accused should not be allowed to determine about others` rights," said Trinamool MP Kalyan Banerjee.
TMC’s demand comes after Justice Ganguly’s name was made public on Friday by an official of the apex court. He disclosed that the panel set up by the top court had recorded statements of the intern as well as the retired judge.
A three-member panel that probed the charge of sexual harassment of a young lawyer by a Supreme Court judge, now retired, has identified Ganguly as the judge.
The Mamata Banerjee-led state government and the rights panel do not share a cordial relationship. Besides making several recommendations against it, Ganguly has been vociferous in deriding the Banerjee regime over several issues including the rising crime chart.
As soon as the name became public, Justice Ganguly, who now heads the West Bengal Human Rights Commission, expressed "shock" over the allegation and said he was "shattered".
"I am denying everything. I have told the committee that all the allegations levelled by the intern are wrong. I don`t know how such allegations have been levelled against me," he told a news agency.
"I totally deny the allegations. I am a victim of situations," he told television channels.
"I am not ashamed of anything," he said in reply to a question in regard to the alleged episode which came out in public domain after the intern spoke about in a legal portal earlier this month.
He said the charges against him were totally wrong. The girl had not raised any sexual harassment issue with him, he said, adding that he had not done any physical harm to her.
The former judge said the intern worked with him though she was not officially allocated to him. She came in the place of another intern who had gone abroad after marriage. "I never put up a poster. She came on her own."
He said the girl had come to his house on a number of occasions in connection with the work.
With agencies inputs
