Three guys were arrested by Kolkata Police on Friday in connection with the gang rape of a law student at South Calcutta Law College in the Kasba neighbourhood of the city. Two of the accused are now enrolled in the school, and the third is a former student. On June 26, one day following the incident, the survivor filed a First Information Report (FIR) with the police. The accused allegedly urged the woman, a first-year student, to remain back after she had arrived on campus for some work at around 4 PM.
Her claim of gang rape has been supported by the medical examination, as authorities have verified the existence of injuries typical of sexual assault. Doctors discovered “forceful penetration, bite marks, and nail scratches” on her torso, the report said.
After appearing before the Alipore additional chief judicial magistrate’s court, the accused—Monojit Mishra, 31, a college employee, and students Zaib Ahmed, 19, and Pramit Mukherjee, 20—were placed under police custody till July 1. Around 6:10 PM, the survivor reported that everything seemed normal, according to the FIR. One of the accused asked her to stay a bit longer as others were getting ready to depart. “He called me outside the room (Union room) and told me that from the very first day he likes me. After his girlfriend he is in love with someone and that is me and he gave a proposal for marriage,” the woman alleged in her complaint.
The FIR claims that the woman claimed that after packing her luggage and getting ready to depart, the primary accused told the other two people to go “outside and lock the door.” “It was within fraction of second…He took me near the washroom and tried to force me with the intention of rousing sex,” the FIR read.
The survivor claimed in her FIR that she begged the primary accused to release her on several occasions, but he disregarded her pleas. “I touched his feet but he did not let me go, but he did not listen,” she said in her statement. “He asked the other two to take me inside the guard’s room and make the guard sit outside. They did so,” she said in the written complaint.
The FIR claims that the primary accused continually threatened and physically attacked her while the other two males looked on. The woman further alleged that the accused not only raped her but also used threats to silence her. “They threatened to kill my boyfriend and arrest my parents,” she stated. She also said the accused had recorded the assault and used the footage to blackmail her. “He showed two videos of me being naked from when he raped me. He threatened to show everyone this video if I do not co-operate and come whenever he calls me,” she said in the written statement.
Describing the incident, the woman said, “He also tried to hit me with a hockey stick…I just left myself like a dead body. He finished his forceful penetration and then left me. I went outside the room at 10:05 PM. He asked me not to tell anyone.” According to police, the three accused confined the woman in a guard room on the ground floor of the college building. The assault allegedly took place between 7:30 PM and 10:50 PM.
The woman informed her parents later that night, and a police complaint was filed the next day. Investigators have seized the mobile phones of the accused and sent them for forensic analysis. Police also confirmed that Mishra’s social media profile showed links to the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC), identifying him as a former TMC youth wing leader at the college.
Mishra’s lawyer, Azam Khan, denied the charges, saying, “These are baseless allegations against my client. He is being framed because of a political tussle.” The case has sparked a political row in West Bengal, with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) accusing the TMC of failing to ensure women’s safety and highlighting Monojit Mishra’s links to the ruling party. In response, the TMC condemned the assault and distanced itself from the accused.
