A woman in her mid-30s has lodged a complaint against a Reserve Force sergeant accusing him of harassing her and trying to outrage her modesty.

The sergeant, Sandip Dey, surrendered before Bankshall court on Friday morning and was granted bail.

He has been slapped with a bailable case under IPC Section 509 (using words, gestures or acts intended to insult the modesty of a woman).

An officer of Hare Street police station, where the woman lodged the FIR on Thursday night, said the complainant had accused Dey of harassing her for several months.

But Dey told his superiors that he had an affair with the woman and she was levelling “false charges” against him under pressure from her family members.

According to the complaint, Dey often called up the woman on her cellphone and made “lewd remarks” ignoring her repeated pleas to stop harassing her.

Dey also managed to trace the woman’s office on Hare Street and would allegedly stand at the gate waiting for an opportunity to accost her.

“The woman repeatedly told the sergeant not to hound her. But when all her pleas fell on deaf ears, she decided to come forward and lodge an FIR,” said an officer of Hare Street police station.

The woman mentioned in the complaint that Dey had revealed his professional identity and warned her not to lodge a complaint against him.

“The itemised call-list of the woman’s cellphone shows that the sergeant had called her on several occasions. He had also sent her a few text messages,” said an officer, requesting anonymity.

Dey denied the charges during interrogation, alleging that he was in a relationship with the woman and that she was going after him to save herself.

“I am a bachelor and she never disclosed that she was married. We used to meet secretly as she told me that her parents were conservative and would not take kindly to our affair,” an officer quoted Dey as saying.

“She is now slapping false charges on me to suppress the truth from her family members, who have got wind of the affair,” the sergeant told those probing the case.

A senior officer at Lalbazar expressed shock at the allegation against Dey. “Such behaviour by men in uniform tarnishes the image of our force. Stern action will be taken against the sergeant if the charges are found true.”

This is the fourth instance (see box) in the recent past of policemen bringing the force into disrepute, ranging from the sleeping-on-duty act of the cops on train while escorting the marmoset thief to Calcutta from Durg to two on-duty jawans of the Railway Protection Force getting drunk on a Howrah-bound train and misbehaving with passengers.