New Delhi:
The Delhi police today said it would abide by the law on former Supreme Court judge AK Ganguly, accused of sexually harassing a law intern in December last year, and was under no pressure.
"We are abiding by law, we will do the needful. What is required under law, will be done," Delhi Police Commissioner BS Bassi told NDTV.
Justice Ganguly has been accused of sexually harassing an intern in a hotel room in Delhi last December. The allegation first surfaced in a blog by the young lawyer, after which a complaint was filed with the Delhi police.
The former judge reportedly told a panel of three Supreme Court judges investigating the allegation that the charges against him don't hold as tougher sexual harassment laws were not in place then.
"I say that accepting all allegations of sexual harassment made by the intern to be true (which is strongly denied by me), the incident allegedly took place in December when the sexual harassment Act was not enabled," Justice Ganguly said, the panel has noted in a report accessed exclusively by NDTV.
The nine-page report is likely to be included in a presidential reference that the government is preparing for Justice Ganguly's removal as the Chairperson of the West Bengal Human Rights Commission.
(Read)The government has said that it will decide on the presidential reference next week.
The Supreme Court panel indicted the former judge for what it called "unwelcome behaviour" and "conduct of sexual nature." But it said it could take no action as Justice Ganguly had retired when the alleged harassment took place.
In her signed statement before the judges panel, the intern said Justice Ganguly told her he loved her, kissed her arm and asked her to share his room at a luxury hotel on December 24 last year. (
read intern's affidavit)
Only two months later, the government introduced a new set of tough laws to deal with crime against women, impelled by the unprecedented, nationwide protests that followed the brutal gang-rape of a young student on a moving bus in Delhi on December 16, 2012.
While calls for his removal are growing louder, Justice Ganguly has stubbornly refused to quit.