Daijiworld Media Network
New Delhi, Nov 29: After having blogged about her sexual harassment by a senior judge during her internship, the intern concerned has recently revealed that he person she has written about was former Supreme Court Judge, Justice Ashok K Ganguly. Judge Ganguly, reacting to a statement released by an apex court official officially disclosed that the accused had recorded his statement to a three-judge committee headed by Judge R M Lodha and a report of same had been presented to the Chief Justice of India.
Judge Ganguly on the other hand said that he had nothing to be ashamed of and that he denied all the charges being levelled against him. He said that the intern in question had come to him on her own for her internship as a replacement for one who had left. He admitted to being in the city at the time specified by the intern but said he had been there for his own work. He further added that if any female intern was uncomfortable working with him they were free to take their leave.
The judge said that he had treated all of the many intern he had worked with throughout his career as his own children and that he would never harm any of them. No one before now had come forward with any incriminating allegations against his behaviour towards them or his work ethics. He also said that he couldn't comment on whether the judges before whom he presented his statement earlier harboured any pre-conceived notions about him. Judge Ganguly expressed his faith in the nation and said that his years of work spoke for him where his integrity was in question.
The young woman who had claimed to have been raped by the judge had done so via a blog entry stating that he had lured her to a hotel room under false pretences of work and sexual assaulted therein. She also said she had been too shocked to react at the time and therefore was putting her trials in the written word after all this time to the world. On November 18, she appeared before the panel set up by the Supreme court to look into the matter and gave details of all that transpired in the hotel room.
In the West Bengal, its Law Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya said that the Government was yet to decide on a course of action in the given case and that such an allegation was indeed unfortunate. The Government needs to intervene as Judge Ganguly had recently been appointed as the Chairperson of the West Bengal Human Rights Commission (WBHRC) in 2011 at the behest of Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee.