The governing body of South Calcutta Law College on Tuesday announced that Monojit Mishra, the main accused in the gang rape of a 24-year-old student last week, had been terminated as a casual staffer.

However, the college failed to specify when classes would resume or explain how Mishra, 31, was allowed to wield power on campus despite facing at least 11 police cases, including molestation and assault.

The governing body also announced that two of Mishra’s associates and current students of the college — Pramit Mukherjee, 20, and Zaib Ahmed, 19 — have been rusticated. The college is now seeking a new security agency after blacklisting the previous one that supplied two personnel.

The trio were arrested on June 26-27 after the woman filed a complaint with Kasba police station, alleging she was raped, assaulted and filmed. According to the complaint, the woman was first assaulted in the students’ union room on the evening of June 25. When she tried to escape, she was forcibly taken to the security guard’s room, where Mishra allegedly raped her while the other two watched.

Security guard Pinaki Banerjee, 55, was arrested on the evening of June 27. All four appeared before the Alipore court on Tuesday, with Mishra, Mukherjee and Ahmed remanded in police custody until July 8, and Banerjee until July 4.

College changes

“We have decided to terminate the employment of Monojit Mishra and rusticate Pramit Mukhopadhyay and Zaib Ahmed,” Ashok Kumar Deb, the governing body president and Trinamool Congress MLA from Budge Budge, said after Tuesday’s meeting on the college premises in Kasba.

“We will request the Bar Council of India to revoke Mishra’s licence as a criminal lawyer. The college will not open now for classes, but the office will remain open. The education department will be apprised of the situation,” he added.

Since the police have blocked access to the vice-principal’s first-floor office, the meeting was held in the open on the ground floor, facing the students’ union office where the initial assault occurred last Wednesday.

The governing body approved recommendations made on Monday by the higher education department to vice-principal Nayna Chatterji. Additional changes include hiring a new security agency with at least one woman security guard, revising the college hours from 7am-2pm (against 9am-2pm), making ID cards mandatory for campus entry and prohibiting anyone from staying after 2pm.

Hiring process

The announcement left students gathered at the college gate anxious about their academic future, with classes suspended indefinitely since Monday.

Deb avoided questions about how Mishra was appointed despite being arrested three times — twice by the Kalighat police and once by the Kasba police. What is more troubling is that Mishra was hired as a casual employee just four months after vice-principal Chatterji filed an FIR against him in May 2024.

His contract was renewed every 45 days.

Pressed on these issues, Deb left in his car as the police formed a protective cordon around him.

“We would seek the death penalty for Monojit as the highest punishment,” Chatterji told reporters, though it was unclear whom the college would approach for this request. She also failed to answer questions about Mishra’s appointment despite his arrest record and the lack of background checks.

Institutional failure

The Telegraph previously reported that Mishra had been charge-sheeted in several cases involving harassment of women, assault, property damage and theft.

“Mishra is a history-sheeter with several cases and chargesheets against him in the Kolkata Police jurisdiction,” a senior police officer said on Sunday.

Associate professor Haripada Banik, a governing body member, revealed the extent of institutional fear: “We earlier received complaints against Monojit from women students and the police were informed as well. He ran a threat culture on the college campus. We used to fear him. I do not want to comment on who gave him political patronage.”

Mishra’s Facebook account displays pictures of him with several Trinamool Congress leaders and ministers from Mamata Banerjee’s cabinet.

His influence was so extensive that the governing body meeting where he was appointed allegedly lacked a quorum, according to college teachers.

“We have to check the minutes of that meeting to find out what happened,” said governing body member Sibranjan Chatterjee. “The college does not have any practice of verification before appointing casual staff.”

Additional measures

The governing body announced that Mishra would be asked to refund all salaries drawn, and the woman’s family would receive financial assistance if desired.

The case highlights serious questions about institutional accountability, political influence in educational institutions and the failure to protect students from known threats, particularly when they had been repeatedly reported and documented through official channels.