The main accused in the gangrape of a law student inside South Calcutta Law College campus on June 25 had called and threatened the survivor on the night before his arrest, police sources said on Thursday.
According to a police officer, late on the night of June 25, the day of the crime, the main accused Monojit Mishra, named in the FIR, had called the survivor and threatened her with dire consequences if she went to the police.
Mishra had proposed marriage to the 24-year old woman and proceeded with the brutal act for three hours after she turned him down.
Mishra and his associates Zaib Ahmed and Pramit Mukherjee had recorded videos of the assault with which they threatened her.
After the assault, Mishra along with Ahmed left the college around 11.25 pm.
It is suspected that Mishra, after he left the college, had called a Trinamool Chhatra Parishad leader residing in Fern Road.
“He wanted to meet the leader at his home, but was turned down,” said a police officer. “We suspect that they did meet somewhere on Fern Road.”
The investigators are shifting through CCTV footage from around Bijan Setu, which is located between the college and Fern Road, to see if Mishra and Ahmed were caught on camera with the third person at any point.
From the tower location of Mishra’s phone it appears he went to Hazra from Fern Road. It is suspected that he was at Hazra for several hours that night as the tower location is pinned at the spot. Police suspect that he was trying to meet some other leaders too.
The evening of June 26, before his arrest from Kasba’s Talbagan area he had called the yet-to-be identified Trinamool students’ wing leader several times.
A former head of the Trinamool Chhatra Parishad’s unit at the college,Mishra was employed as a temporary staffer on the recommendation of the TMC’s Budge Budge MLA and college’s governing body president Ashok Deb. His influence and reign of terror has been revealed since his arrest last week.
The 31-year old Mishra had been arrested on several charges including molestation, assault and theft. In July 2019 he was accused of tearing a woman’s cloth inside the campus. A chargesheet was filed against him in January 2020 for theft of several personal belongings of a friend of his. Another woman had accused him of molesting him in which a chargesheet was filed against him. Last year, the college authorities had lodged a police complaint against him for assaulting a security guard.
Despite his criminal records he could evade any legal action, secured a temporary government job and continued to wield his influence.
“We are trying to identify the people who had helped him in the past,” said an officer.