The security guard at the South Calcutta Law College who allegedly allowed his room to be used for the gang rape of a 24-year-old woman student was arrested on Friday night.
Police have found obscene videos of the woman from the mobile phone of prime accused Monojit Mishra — footage that, investigators say, was recorded partially by him and partially by someone else.
Mishra allegedly assaulted and raped the woman during a three-hour period, from 7.30pm to 10.50pm on Wednesday. Mishra, a 31-year-old former Trinamool Congress Chhatra Parishad leader, is an ex-student of the college and, currently, a casual employee there.
According to the woman’s statement to Kasba police on Thursday, Mishra assaulted her in the students’ union room, then beat and raped her in the security guard’s room while his two alleged associates — Zaib Ahmed, 19, and Pramit Mukherjee, 20, both students of the college — watched.
All three men had been arrested by Friday morning. Police sources said the trio’s claim of “consensual sex” appeared to be contradicted by, among others, CCTV footage showing the woman trying to escape but foiled by a locked main gate.
Security guard Pinaki Banerjee, 55, who was on night duty on Wednesday, was arrested on Friday night. The woman made a statement before a magistrate on Saturday.
Guard’s role
Banerjee reportedly told the police that Mishra and the two others had forcibly confined him in the union room and snatched his phone while they used the guard’s room for the alleged rape.
“He claimed helplessness, saying he had been forced (and confined) in the union room. But the question is, why did he lock the main gate (preventing the woman from leaving after the initial assault in the union room) and why did he not inform the college authorities or the police after he was released?” an investigating officer said.
Banerjee, a Khardah native who lives in Kasba, has been charged with gang rape and the other offences invoked against Mishra, Mukherjee and Ahmed. He was produced in court on Saturday and remanded in police custody.