Kolkata: The alleged gangrape of a female law student in a city-based college was a premeditated act, with three of the four arrested individuals having targeted the victim for a prolonged period, according to Kolkata Police.
A nine-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the incident has found that the main accused — Monojit Mishra, Pratim Mukherjee, and Zaid Ahmed — had a history of sexually harassing female students at South Calcutta Law College. The fourth accused is a security guard employed by the college.
“The entire act was pre-planned. The trio had been plotting for several days to carry out this torture. Our findings suggest the victim was targeted by the prime accused from the day she got admitted to the college,” a senior police officer stated on Monday.
Investigators revealed that the trio often recorded their acts of harassment on mobile phones and used the footage to blackmail their victims. Police are currently searching for these videos as part of the ongoing probe.
“Searches were conducted at the residences of Mukherjee and Ahmed on Sunday. We are trying to recover any video clips related to this incident and potentially others,” the officer added.
Authorities suspect that footage of the alleged gangrape, which occurred on June 25, may have been shared by the accused.
“We are investigating whether the videos were forwarded or circulated in other groups. If so, we will have to identify and question the recipients,” the officer said.
The SIT has compiled a list of over 25 individuals — primarily students — who were present on the college premises on the evening of June 25.
“All these individuals will be questioned as part of the investigation. We need to determine what they saw or heard that evening,” the officer said.
The case involves a female student of South Calcutta Law College located in the city’s Kasba area. She was allegedly gangraped by three individuals — one alumnus and two current students of the college — with the alleged complicity of the institution's security guard.
With PTI inputs