Police still looking into harassment case

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.