Letter petition urges SC to take suo motu cognisance of Kolkata law college gangrape case
    Date :01-Jul-2025

Kolkata law college gangrape case
 
NEW DELHI :
 
A LETTER petition has been addressed to the Chief Justice of India, B.R. Gavai, urging the Supreme Court to take suo motu cognisance of the heinous gangrape of a law student within her college premises at Kasba in South Kolkata. On June 25, a first-year female law student was allegedly raped on the premises of South Calcutta Law College by three accused, all linked to the Trinamool Congress’ student wing, Trinamool Chhatra Parisha. The plea urged the top court to take suo motu cognisance of the incident and sought directions for an immediate and impartial investigation into the matter. It prayed for immediate transfer of the investigation of the rape case to the Central Bureau of Investigation with a direction for time-bound conclusion of probe. Further, the plea filed by advocate Satyam Singh sought directions to the West Bengal Government to pay interim compensation of Rs 50 lakh to the victim for medical treatment, rehabilitation, and legal expenses.
 
Apart from seeking directions to provide immediate and comprehensive protection to the victim, her family members and all witnesses related to the case, the letter petition demanded for framing of comprehensive directions for women’s safety in educational institutions. The plea urged the apex court to direct appropriate action against Trinamool Congress leaders, including Kalyan Banerjee and Madan Mitra, and other public representatives who engaged in victim-shaming and made derogatory remarks. TMC legislator Madan Mitra, infamous for his frequent loose comments, made a controversial statement claiming that the rape incident had sent a message to all girls that they should not go the college when it is closed. Following Mitra’s controversial comments, the Trinamool Congress issued a statement claiming that the remarks were made in his individual capacity and hence the party had unequivocally disassociated itself from his statements and strongly condemned them. The party served a show-cause notice to Mitra.
 
 
‘Gangrape’ pre-planned, accused trio targeted victim for quite some time: Police
 
KOLKATA,
 
June 30 (PTI)
 
THREE out of the four persons arrested in connection with the alleged gangrape of a female student at a city-based law college had pre-planned the assault, a police officer said on Monday. Sleuths of the nine-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the incident also found that the three accused — Monojit Mishra, Pratim Mukherjee and Zaid Ahmed — had a history of sexually harassing female students of the college.
 
The fourth accused is the college’s security guard. According to the officer, the trio would record such episodes on their mobile phones and later use the footage to blackmail the victims. “The entire matter was premeditated. The trio had been plotting for several days to carry out this torture on the victim. We have found that the victim was targeted by the prime accused from the very first day she got admission to the college,” the police officer said. Kolkata Police has launched a search for mobile videos allegedly filmed by the trio. “Searches were conducted at the residences of accused Mukherjee and Ahmed on Sunday. We are looking for footage related to this and  possibly other incidents,” the officer said.
 
The investigators also said a video clip of the June 25 alleged gangrape might have been shared by the accused.
“We are trying to find out whether those clips were forwarded or shared with some other groups. In that case, we have to get in touch with those who have received that,” the officer said. The SIT has prepared a list of over 25 people, mostly students of South Calcutta Law College, who were present at the educational institution on June 25 evening, he said. “All these people will be questioned in connection with the investigation. We have to find out what they witnessed that evening,” he said. A female student of South Calcutta Law College in the city’s Kasba area was allegedly gangraped by three persons, including an alumnus of the educational institution and two current students.