Amid allegations of molestation levelled against him by a woman employee of Raj Bhavan, West Bengal Governor C.V. Ananda Bose on May 9 showed CCTV footage of the premises of May 2 to the common people.
Footage from two CCTV cameras positioned at the main (north) gate, spanning from 5.32 p.m. to 6.41 p.m. on May 2, was shown to a select group of people and journalists at the Central Marble Hall on the ground floor of Raj Bhavan.
A contractual woman employee of Raj Bhavan had on Friday lodged a written complaint with Kolkata Police alleging that she was molested by Mr. Bose in the Governor's house on April 24 and May 2.
However, in the entire footage, Governor Bose could not be seen.
In the first footage, the woman, dressed in blue jeans and a top, was seen going to the police outpost housed within the Governor’s house, with many policemen deployed on Raj Bhavan premises for the scheduled visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The second footage, which lasted for around 10 minutes, showed various vehicles including fire tenders arriving at the gate, and policemen lining up for their regular duties but the woman could not be seen coming out of the next room.
According to the investigating officers of Kolkata Police, the complainant has alleged that she was molested inside the conference room of Raj Bhavan.
During the entire screening, neither Mr. Bose nor any official of the Governor's house were present. Even after the screening was over, there was no official briefing to clarify the purpose of screening the CCTV footage.
Mr. Bose had on Wednesday said he would show the footage to common people, barring "politician" Mamata Banerjee and "her" police.
Mr. Modi had on May 2 stayed the night at Raj Bhavan, before addressing three political rallies in West Bengal on May 3.
A Raj Bhavan official said, "At least 92 people mailed or called us up, expressing their willingness to see the CCTV footage. However, only a few turned up. The intention was to let people judge the incident." One of the visitors, who identified himself as Professor Tushar Kanti Mukherjee, said he saw the footage and could not find any abnormality in the behaviour of the woman.
Reacting to the CCTV footage screening, Trinamool Congress leader and State Finance Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya said, "The Governor said he will show CCTV footage to 100 people. Who are those 100? It was seen that some policemen were roaming around outside Raj Bhavan. A woman is seen in the footage. Her face should have been blurred.
"Second, the Governor said, the truth will come out. Then he could have shown the events of that time. The footage shown proves nothing." BJP spokesperson Shamik Bhattacharya said, "The Governor will surely take action as per his Constitutional responsibilities".
