Kolkata:

A woman journalist has alleged that she has been sexually harassed by a CPM leader when  she had gone to interview him. It occurred when she had gone to the house of Tanmoy Bhattacharya for an interview, she said.

Narrating the event on a Facebook live session, she said the CPM leader had sat on her lap on the pretext of sitting down for the interview. 

“I had faced harassment at Bhattacharya’s house earlier also… He has a tendency to touch people. He would touch my hand,” she said but added that she had not complained about it fearing repercussions. 

“But what happened this time was too much,” she said. 

Tanmoy Bhattacharya, she added, had taken advantage when her cameraperson was trying to set up a frame for the interview and was asking him to sit at a certain spot.

“He said where will I sit and came and sat down on my lap,” she said, visibly shaking while recounting the experience.

“I am not sure whether the CPM will take action… But I have understood that this has nothing to with political colour. There are some people who are like this. It is their problem at a personal level,” she said.

A complaint has been filed at the Baranagar police station about the incident, which coms on the heels of the horrific rape-murder of a young doctor at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College that had stirred up the state and spread ripples across the country. 

It led to largescale protests, ceasework and even an indefinite hunger strike  by junior doctors that was fully backed by the civil society and the opposition parties. 

The CPM has said that Tanmoy Bhattacharya will be suspended and the party will conduct an internal inquiry.