Kolkata rape case: Accused’s criminal record ignored by college

As the investigation into the rape of a law student within her college premises at Kasba in South Kolkata, West Bengal, continues, it has come to the light that the said college authorities allegedly ignored criminal records of one of the three prime accused, Manojit Mishra, while giving him contractual employment. 

The accused Manojit Mishra’s clothes were recovered by the police which he wore at the time of rape of the Kolkata law student. 

The city police headquarters also retrieved the hockey stick which he had used to knock the student down.

Police reportedly said they have collected DNA samples from all three suspects in the case and have also seized clothing from their homes in Kalighat, Tijaka, and Howrah.

Sources said Mishra originally got admission for the LLB course in the same college in 2012.

In 2013, he was booked in a police case on charges of hooliganism in the Kalighat area in South Kolkata, in which he chopped off the finger of an individual.

Thereafter, his admission at the same college was cancelled, and he remained out of  the state for over three years. He returned to Kolkata after the case against him was settled and got re-admission at the same college in 2017.

Again in March 2018, two female students of the same college accused him of sexual harassment, following which he was partially suspended for some time from attending the college, except for appearing for examinations. However, no action was taken, and he continued to attend the college regularly.

In March 2023, he was again accused of sexual harassment by a female student of the college. In December 2023, some students filed a complaint at the local police station, accusing Mishra of entering the college with outsiders and beating them up.

Now, questions are being raised about how the college authorities gave him a contractual appointment, ignoring his criminal antecedents.

College insiders said that Mishra happened to be an extremely close confidant of a TMC MLA, who is also in the governing body of the same college, whom the accused used to address as ‘uncle’.

Questions have started surfacing on why just ‘initials’ of the three persons accused of raping a law college student in Kolkata were mentioned in the FIR instead of full names.

The names of the three accused are Manojit Mishra, Jaib Ahmed, and Pramit Mukhopadhyay, all linked to the Trinamool Congress’ student wing, Trinamool Chhatra Parishad (TMCP).

However, in the FIR registered in the case, the three accused persons were referred to as ‘M’, ‘J’ and ‘P.

(With inputs from syndicated feed)