Bengal governor C.V. Ananda Bose on Sunday directed Raj Bhavan staff to “ignore” any communication from police and barred them from interacting with the force’s investigators citing the “constitutional immunity” his chair enjoyed.

The instruction came a day after the city police sought CCTV footage from the Raj Bhavan in connection with their “enquiry” into allegations of “physical advances” and inappropriate touch against Bose, levelled by a contractual Raj Bhavan employee.

Bose’s statement, issued on X, said that as the governor has “constitutional immunity” from any criminal proceedings, the police “cannot investigate/ inquire into the matter in any manner whatsoever”.

Text messages sent to Bose asking if he would share Raj Bhavan CCTV footage for the “sake of transparency” and to “come out clear of the allegations” had not yielded a response till Sunday night.

Emails were sent to the official IDs of the governor and his secretary. A reply from the governor’s email account said: “Your mail is received and is being examined.”

It did not contain the sender’s name or digital signature.

Bose’s statement said: “The reports from the media indicate that the police propose to conduct an inquiry into the incident and that they would be examining the staff of the Raj Bhavan. It is also reported that the investigating team intends to collect the CCTV footage from Raj Bhavan.

“The question that arises is as to whether the police can conduct an inquiry and collect evidence in view of the immunity enjoyed by the Governor under Art. 361(2) and (3) of the Constitution of India.

“The purpose of an inquiry or investigation on the part of the police in the subject case is for the collection of evidence which culminates in the submission of a final report to the jurisdictional Magistrate…

“Since the Governor has been granted constitutional immunity from any criminal proceedings being instituted or continued against him, it logically follows that the police cannot investigate/ inquire into the matter in any manner whatsoever.

“To say that the inquiry/ investigation of the police could continue even during the tenure of the Governor though no court can take cognisance of the final report, would be in derogation of the objective and essence of Art.361 of the Constitution of India.”

The statement adds: “It is therefore clear that in view of Art. 361 (2) and (3) of the Constitution of India, the state Police cannot act in any manner whatsoever to inquire/ investigate/ set in motion any kind of proceedings against the Hon’ble Governor.”

The statement said: “In the circumstances all staff/ employees including part-time, temporary, DRW or those engaged in Raj Bhavan in any manner are hereby directed to ignore any communication from the police in this respect and refrain from giving any statement online, offline, in person, over phone or in any other manner.

“...The police are constitutionally barred from carrying out any kind of preliminary inquiry, registering a First Information Report.”

After receiving a complaint from the woman, the police registered a general diary entry (GDE) but did not draw up an FIR, though the charges attract penal sections.

Reacting to the governor’s statement, senior Calcutta High Court advocate Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya said there was no constitutional embargo on the police carrying out an investigation into the charges against the governor.

“No one is above the law. The allegations against the governor are extremely serious in nature. The constitutional rights of a governor and the President give them immunity against prosecution but there is no embargo on the police from carrying out an investigation or preliminary enquiry,” Bhattacharyya told The Telegraph on Sunday.

“The way the governor is reacting by directing Raj Bhavan staff not to cooperate with the police investigation, it is only creating doubts about him.”

Hare Street police station, where the GDE was registered, had requested three members of the Raj Bhavan staff to come to the police station on Saturday afternoon to facilitate the enquiry, but no one turned up.

A fourth person asked to come was a cop, who did report at the police station on Saturday.

On Sunday evening, a police officer who is part of the special enquiry team said: “We have yet to get the CCTV footage. We will try again on Monday.”