Following the arrest of West Bengal theatre actor, playwright and professor Sudipto Chatterjee for sexually assaulting two actors in the pretext of helping them to hone their acting skills, another prominent personality from the state has been accused of sexual misconduct.
It all began with a Facebook post of Debalina Mukhopadhyay, a 50-year-old media personality, appreciating the courage of Angela Mondal who came out against Chatterjee through a social media post and later filed complaint against him. In her post, Mukhopadhyay wrote that she too faced sexual harassment and named the person—media personality and musician Ranjon Ghoshal who was also part of a band named Moheener Ghoraguli.
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“...I know one of such Bustered is RANJON GHOSHAL of Bangalore... We could not punish him due to some inadequacy of Support.. He set free... Also the another victim never came out in protest who is also a FB friend of mine... I hope she will now come out in your Support atleast once in life,” Mukhopadhyay wrote.
Mukhopadhyay told Times of India that she knew Ghoshal from her childhood and used to call him kaku. Recalling an instance of harassment she faced, she said she realised his true colour only after she began working with him in 2003-2004. She said she and another colleague was asked to work with Ghoshal and they used to visit him. During one such visits when she was alone, he made her sit next to him on a sofa and began touching her inappropriately. “As I cringed, he held me from behind and started rubbing his bearded face on my shoulder. I immediately reacted and fell on the carpet. Somebody rang the bell and I took my bag and ran away," Times of India quoted her as saying.
She said although she moved court against him, she decided to withdraw it after a year. “I could not forget the day and still feel violated. He is a habitual offender and did not learn any lesson from the incident," she was quoted as saying.
While Ranjon reportedly dismissed the allegations, he took to Facebook to offer an apology for violating personal space. He said he will have to be more careful with his actions to ensure that nobody feels insecure in his presence.
