Police still looking into harassment case

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The internal affairs division at the West Java Police said on Sunday they were still gathering evidence concerning sexual harassment allegedly conducted by Bogor Police chief Sr. Comr. Tjiptono against a policewoman and a secretary last month.

West Java Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Muryan Faisal said that internal affairs officers had questioned several witnesses in the case but needed more evidence to conclude whether there had in fact been sexual harassment.

"Right now, we are still gathering more evidence. We also haven't received any written complaints from the two women on the harassment. We need documents to strengthen the case," he told The Jakarta Post.

Earlier, several media outlets reported that one of the two women had sent a letter to the West Java Police to describe what had happened.

In her letter, the secretary to the Bogor Police chief had reportedly said that during the fasting month in October Tjiptono had caressed and kissed her several times in his office, even though she had tried to reject his advances.

Earlier, another Bogor Police officer said that she had been sexually harassed by Tjiptono.

The case was made public last week after phone text messages describing the harassment circulated among several reporters.

Since the case broke, the two officers seemed to have disappeared, and were difficult to interview.

Tjiptono has denied all the allegations saying that they were only rumors that were deliberately circulated to discredit him by his rivals.

The National Police announced earlier that the West Java Police had questioned Tjiptono about the allegations.

Muryan said that they would question Tjiptono again.

"We aren't certain that sexual harassment actually occurred at that time as we haven't got any clear evidence," he said.