Governing body members of South Calcutta Law College have asked the vice-principal why Monojit Mishra, the main accused in a gang-rape on campus on June 25, and two other contractual staffers had access to CCTV footage from the institute’s three cameras.

At a governing body meeting on Thursday, vice-principal Nayna Chatterji was questioned for sharing access with the three non-teaching employees, despite being the designated sole custodian of the footage.

Mishra, 31, a daily-wage casual staffer since July 2 last year, was terminated on July 1 following a recommendation from the education department.

A former Trinamool student leader on the law college campus, allegedly close to several party figures, Mishra was arrested on June 26 on charges of gang-raping a 24-year-old student. Current students Pramit Mukherjee, 20, and Zaib Ahmed, 19, were arrested on the same charge, along with college security guard Pinaki Banerjee, 55. All four are in jail.

Vice-principal Chatterji told the governing body members that the two remaining casual staffers — Bimal Samanta and Raju Kahar — no longer had access to CCTV footage, but allegedly failed to explain why access had been given in the first place.
Many in the college alleged the three formed a gang on the campus that misused their power.

“The vice-principal was asked what prompted her to give them access to the footage. There are allegations that they used the footage to blackmail students. If she wanted to share responsibility, she could have involved the governing body members,” said one meeting attendee.

“She was asked why someone who had been arrested five times by Kolkata Police, before being arrested for the gang-rape, was given such responsibility on the campus,” the attendee added.

The three CCTVs were installed on the campus in January 2023, after a first-year student and his father were allegedly assaulted by Trinamool Congress student supporters. The student had filed a ragging complaint through the UGC’s anti-ragging helpline.

Calls and messages to vice-principal Chatterji went unanswered till late on Saturday.

One of the two remaining casual staffers, Raju Kahar, from Budge Budge in South 24-Parganas, said: “The vice-principal gave me access to the CCTV footage after the cameras were installed in 2023. But after a complaint of blackmail using the footage was made against me, I stopped accessing the footage in August 2024. I have nothing to do with Mishra. We did not abuse any power.”

The college governing body is headed by Ashok Deb, the Trinamool MLA from Budge Budge.

The other casual staffer, Bimal Samanta, from Batanagar in South 24-Parganas, said he also stopped accessing the footage last August.