Intern case: Judge is A K Ganguly; he denies charge

The committee of three Supreme Court judges probing the woman’s allegations submitted its report to Chief Justice of India P Sathasivam on Thursday. The report has referred to statements made by both the woman and the retired judge.

“The statement of the law intern was recorded. She had also submitted three affidavits. The statement of Mr Justice A K Ganguly (retd) has also been recorded by the committee. The committee has submitted its report to the CJI on November 28,” a Supreme Court official said in a statement.

The official said the committee comprising Justices R M Lodha,H L Dattu and Ranjana Prakash Desai had met seven times,and had interacted with the woman and recorded Justice Ganguly’s statement.

Court officials,however,declined to provide details of the committee’s findings. The committee was constituted on November 12 after the CJI took suo motu cognizance of the woman’s blog post on the web site of the Journal of Indian Law and Society.

The woman,who graduated from Kolkata’s National University of Juridical Sciences this year,did not name the judge but said he had “retired recently”.

When contacted,Justice Ganguly told The Indian Express that he had denied the woman’s allegation. “It is a false allegation. I am a victim of situations. She was my intern,like my child. She used to come to my house. This is so unfortunate. How do you expect anyone to counter such an allegation,and who will believe?” he said.

Asked if he was contemplating resigning his post at the Bengal human rights commission,Justice Ganguly said,“I have not decided so far.”

Legal experts underscored the fact that Justice Ganguly was not an SC judge when the alleged incident took place. Key amendments to the law,laying down more stringent punishment for rape and sexual assault and expanding the definition of sexual crimes against women,too came into effect after the alleged incident.

“A lot will depend on what the lawyer told the committee. Does she want to take her allegations to the logical conclusion? Unless the complainant is ready to support the prosecution,there is no chance of a conviction or a successful trial,” said a legal expert.