Justice Ganguly takes suo motu cognisance of outraging modesty of girl

Kolkata, Dec 17: West Bengal Human Rights Commission chairman Justice (retd) Ashok Kumar Ganguly, indicted by a

judges' committee for "conduct of

nature", has taken suo motu cognisance of a case of outraging the modesty of a young

.

"Considering the seriousness of the incident, the Commission, comprising chairman Justice AK Ganguly and member Naparajit Mukherjee, has taken suo motu cognisance of the matter and directed the SP, Howrah (rural) to cause an investigation by a responsible officer and send the report to the Commission within four weeks," WBHRC registrar Rabindranath Samanta told PTI here today.

Justice Ganguly, who did not go to the WBHRC headquarters at Bhabani Bhavan for some days after the three-judge committee's report saying that he committed "unwelcome behaviour" towards a woman law intern was made public, has been attending office since Friday and the cognisance was taken after a meeting of the Commission yesterday, WBHRC sources said.

Samanta said that the incident occurred on Saturday afternoon at Uluberia in Howrah district when three girl students of Kalinagar High School were returning home from school. "A young man alongwith some associates followed them and started teasing them and ultimately the attitude of the teasers became very serious," Samanta said.

"One of the girls informed her brother over mobile phone and when he came and protested, he was brutally assaulted by the eve-teasers," the WBHRC registrar said. "At the intervention of the local people, one of them was detained while three others fled," he said.

He said that learning from the newspapers about the incident, the Commission decided to take suo motu cognisance of the incident. Police sources said that all the four accused have been arrested.

They have been charged under sections 354 (assault or use of criminal force to a woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 506 (uttering any word or making any gesture intended to insult the modesty of a woman), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 341 (wrongfully restraining a person), 325 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 34 (common intention) of IPC, the sources said.

PTI