The college where a 24-year-old law student was allegedly gang-raped on June 25 reopened on Monday.

Such is the scar that many parents accompanied their daughters to South Calcutta Law College on the first day.

First-year students came to fill out their forms to write the first-semester exams, scheduled to start on July 16.

Many parents said the alleged rape and the horror stories that surfaced over the past few days had left them shaken, and they could not risk sending their children alone.

Monojit Mishra, 31, former president of the Trinamool student unit at the college,
has been arrested for the crime, along with second-
year students Pramit Mukherjee, 20, and Zaib Ahmed, 19. According to the woman’s statement to police, the crime scene includes the students’ union room and the guard’s room.

Security guard Pinaki Banerjee, 55, is the fourth person arrested.

Worried guardians

Rafika Khanam, whose daughter is in the first year, accompanied her to college on Monday. Her husband came as well.

“As a guardian, I am extremely worried about my daughter’s safety. We are terrified after witnessing such a horrific incident in the very college where she is supposed to study for the next four years. I cannot leave her alone,” Rafika said.

She added that she would accompany her daughter each time she came to college and wait outside until her classes were over.

“That is the only way I can feel safe about her,” said Rafika. The family came from Basirhat in North 24-Parganas.

Referring to the junior doctor’s rape and murder at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in August 2024, she said: “There was already a sense of fear after what happened at RG Kar. And now this — right on the premises of the college where my daughter studies. A predator was lurking on the campus all these days and we did not know.”

The same fear weighed on Subhra Mitra and Kalachand Mitra, who came with their son Soumyadeep, another first-year student.

The mother sought permission from the college guard and went up to the college office, where forms were being filled out.

“I have asked him to share his live location each time he comes to college henceforth. As parents, we will take turns accompanying him to college. Be it in Jadavpur (she was referring to the alleged ragging in the main hostel that led to a first-year student’s death in 2023), RG Kar or the law college, campuses are becoming unsafe,” said Subhra.

On Monday, 26 first-year students came to campus to complete the form-filling formalities. The exercise could not be completed earlier as the campus was closed last week.

Security checks

Students were allowed in upon producing their identity cards before security guard Barun Mahali.

The police placed guard rails outside the students’ union room and the guard’s room to secure the crime scenes.

A cordon was created using the guard rails, through which students, teachers, and vice-principal Nayna Chatterji entered the building.

Chatterji was the first to enter, at 7.30am.

An hour later, a purported image of an attendance register surfaced on social media, showing her arrival and departure on June 25 as 9.50 (no AM/PM mentioned). Many began questioning whether she was present around the time of the alleged gang rape.

As she stepped out of campus at 2pm on Monday, Chatterji told reporters: “Although I came to the campus on June 25, I left in the afternoon to attend a syllabus committee meeting at Hazra Law College.”