Police cordoned off a larger area of Paranganj forest and restricted entry to the crime scene on Thursday where a second-year medical student of IQ City medical College and Hospital in Durgapur was gang-raped on Friday night.
Police said that the decision to cordon off a larger area was taken following interrogation of her arrested classmate Wasef Ali, who was sent to seven days in police custody on Wednesday.
Apart from Ali, 20, five youths of Bijra, a locality close to the private medical college campus, had been arrested in connection with the gang rape of the 23-year-old medical student who hails from Odisha.
“We have found that a larger area should be cordoned off for the sake of investigations. We decided to seal a larger area after intense interrogation of the arrested classmate,” said a police officer.
The decision to restrict entry in a larger area for the sake of investigation came at a time when the Opposition has already raised questions why the police took 36 hours to cordon off the crime scene.
“It is clear that the police did not do enough to deliver justice to the victim. First, the police cordoned off the crime scene on Sunday morning even though the incident took place on Friday night and complaint was lodged by early Saturday morning. Now, the police it decided to cordon off a larger area on Thursday. Only fools will believe that the police were trying to find out the truth,” said a local BJP leader.
Contraceptives found
As part of the probe, the police on Thursday took Ali to his hostel room where the police found 11 unused contraceptives of a specific brand.
The police later took Ali to the crime scene where they found another contraceptive of the same brand.
Police sources said that it appeared that the contraceptives were bought from a local shop a few days ago.
“But the arrested student (Ali) did not reveal anything about it so far. We are trying to get to know where the contraceptives were brought from. Once it is found, it would be easier to solve the case. The contraceptives recovered from the hostel room of the arrested student would be mentioned in the seizure list,” said a police officer.
Another officer said that they were awaiting forensic reports.
Dinner query
The police were trying to find out where Ali and the woman were supposed to dine on Friday night after leaving the campus.
“The arrested classmate (Ali) is yet to reveal where they were planning to have food after leaving the campus. The question is valid as there is no proper eatery in a radius of 3km from the campus. We will ask the same question to the MBBS student (rape survivor) also,” said a police officer.