Student gang-raped at Kolkata college after she refuses marriage offer; 3 arrested

A 24-year-old first-year student of a law college in south Kolkata was allegedly gang-raped inside the institution by an alumnus and its two senior students, police said on Friday.

All three accused were arrested and produced before a court which remanded them to police custody for four days.

Results of the medical examination conducted on the victim corroborated her gang-rape allegation, a senior Kolkata Police officer said.

The incident prompted fierce responses from opposition parties, with the Left, BJP, Congress and AIDSO supporters clashing with the police outside the Kasba police station under whose jurisdiction the alleged crime was committed.

Taking suo motu cognizance of the incident that occurred on the evening of June 25, the National Women's Commission asked the Kolkata Police to file a detailed action taken report within three days.

The crime at the South Calcutta Law College brought back the horrific memories of the rape and murder of an intern inside RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in August last year which created a major political dust-up across the state.

The prime accused in the recent incident is a former student of the institute and a practising criminal lawyer at Alipore Police and Sessions Court, college sources said.

The two other accused are students of the college and senior to the victim.

College authorities stated that the main accused was also engaged as a temporary non-teaching staff at the institution for a renewable contractual period of 45 days as per a governing body resolution.

Social media profiles of the prime accused claim that he is a former president of the college's Trinamool Congress Chhatra Parishad unit and organisational secretary of south Kolkata wing of the TMC's student body.

Photographs available in public domain also showed him with several leaders of the state's ruling party.

The TMC, though, denied having any connection with the accused now and sought "severe punishment" if he is found guilty.

Police said the victim was tortured for over three hours inside a guard's room next to the students' union office after class hours on Wednesday.

Initial investigations revealed that the victim had reached the college in the afternoon to fill up exam forms and was asked by the suspects, who exercised considerable sway over students, to stay back.

"According to the complaint she filed at the Kasba police station on Thursday, she was first assaulted by the trio after she turned down a marriage proposal from the main accused citing an existing relationship. She was then dragged inside the security person's room and raped by the prime accused while the two aides assisted him in the act and stood guard," the officer said.

The torture, the victim alleged, started around 7.30 pm and went on till well past 10.30 pm.

The miscreants shut the main door of the college and made the security guard sit outside his room, the victim alleged.

Forensic experts collected evidence from the scenes of crime, which had been previously sealed.

According to a police source, the victim has alleged that she was filmed while being gang-raped.

"She alleged that the accused threatened to release the footage on internet if she disclosed it. They also threatened to harm her boyfriend and implicate her parents in false cases," he said.

The mobile phones of the accused have been seized and sent for forensic tests.

"We are trying to find out whether the footage was forwarded to other numbers," the officer said.

Police later confirmed that the medical test results corroborated the victim's allegation that she was raped.

“There is evidence of forceful penetration, bite marks and nail scratches on her body," an officer told PTI.

To a question, he said that the prime accused raped her while the other two stood guard.

"According to a Supreme Court judgement, all persons in a group involved in cases of gang-rape must be held liable, even if all of them did not commit the act of rape. In this case, two others helped in the rape. So this is a case of gang-rape, and they are also accused in the case," Chief Police Prosecutor Sourin Ghosal said.

Clashes broke out between police and SFI-DIFY supporters on Friday afternoon after the force tried to disperse them from agitating before the Kasba police station.

Multiple agitators were injured in the scuffle and an unknown number of demonstrators were detained.

Workers of the BJP, Congress and AIDSO also held protests before the Kasba police station before they were forcibly removed.

Both the BJP and Congress announced agitation programmes on Saturday, with the Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari threatening to take protests “to the farthest possible extent in the days to come”.

TMCP president Trinankur Bhattacharya, while demanding strictest punishment for the guilty, said the main suspect was never the organisation's unit president at the college since the students' body there has remained defunct for years.

Addressing a press conference, West Bengal minister Shashi Panja said the state government stands firmly with the victim and her family.

"Instead of making the victim a battleground for politics, her pain must be understood, she must be respected, and justice ensured – swiftly and unconditionally,” she added.