Four men arrested for the alleged gang rape of a 24-year-old South Calcutta Law College student were taken to the campus early on Friday for a “reconstruction” of the crime scene.

The prime accused, Monojit Mishra, 31, his associates Pramit Mukherjee, 20, and Zaib Ahmed, 19, and college security guard Pinaki Banerjee, 55, were brought to the college around 3am. One by one, they were asked to identify the spots where the alleged incident occurred.

“The idea behind the reconstruction is to corroborate the statements of the accused and the woman with circumstantial evidence,” said an officer of Kasba police station.

Mishra, Mukherjee, and Ahmed were individually taken to the students’ union room and then the guard’s room. They were asked to show what happened on the night of June 25.

According to the woman’s statement, Mishra had tried to force himself on her in the students’ union room when she managed to push him back.

She had a panic attack and requested medical help or at least an inhaler, her statement to the police said. One of Mishra’s two associates brought an inhaler for her. But once she was stable, she was forcibly taken to the security guard’s room where Mishra allegedly raped her in the presence of two associates, her statement said.

The guard was waiting outside, she said.

Mishra, Mukherjee and Ahmed have claimed that the woman was not raped and that it was consensual sex. The police found CCTV footage from cameras on the campus that shows the woman trying to escape, contradicting the consensual sex defence of the accused.

Banerjee has claimed he was confined to the union room and his phone was snatched.

“The guard’s statement has many discrepancies. His alibi is that he was locked inside the union room and had no access to his phone.
But that does not explain why he kept quiet after being released or why he locked the main gate, preventing the woman from leaving,” said an investigator.

The officers of the detective department also conducted 3D laser mapping of the two rooms where the alleged crime took place.

In 3D laser mapping, three-dimensional photographs of all objects at the crime scene are captured, their exact dimensions recorded, and distances between them calculated as part of the probe.

“Once the 3D mapping is done, it becomes easier to match the statements of the accused or complainant with the objects they describe at the scene. The slightest discrepancies get caught,” said an officer attached to the probe.

The reconstruction was wrapped up by 8.30am, after which the police took the four accused back to Kasba police station.