The pressure is building on Bengal’s ruling party over the gang-rape of a law student on the South Calcutta Law College campus. .
Three separate PILs were admitted in the Calcutta High Court on Monday demanding a court-monitored Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the gang-rape, and assessment – monitired by a retured judge – of women’s security on campus.
The matter was brought to the attention of a division bench of Justice Soumen Sen and Justice Smita Das, who allowed the petitions to be filed.
The hearing is likely to be held on Thursday.
Kolkata Police have set up a special investigation team to probe the case in which four persons, including the main accused, have been arrested.
On the evening of June 25, the 24-year-old law student was allegedly gang-raped by a lawyer and temporary employee of the same college and two accomplices. The main accused, Monojit Mishra, has ties with the Trinamool, which the ruling party has denied.
Mishra, a former president of the informal Trinamool Chhatra Parishad unit at the college, had been arrested on several charges including molestation, assault and theft.
In July 2019 he was accused of tearing a woman’s clothes 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.
In September of the same year, he was recommended for a temporary job at the college.
Distancing the party from the main accused, the Trinamool had claimed there was no functioning unit of the party in the law college and Mishra did not hold any posts in the party, though his social media profile claims otherwise.
A four-member fact-finding team from the BJP arrived in Kolkata on Monday morning. The team is awaiting appointments with the state chief secretary and the commissioner of police.
“We have not yet received any appointment. Mamata Banerjee sends teams to Hathras and Pahalgam. When a similar team comes to her state on a serious incident permission is not granted,” said BJP MP and former Tripura chief minister Biplab Deb.
The Trinamool, unhappy with the BJP’s decision to send a team, has questioned women’s safety in BJP-ruled states and has accused the saffron party of selective outrage.
“The entire BJP machinery springs into overdrive whenever an unfortunate incident occurs in Bengal. But when their own ally, seen sharing stage with senior BJP leaders, stands accused of rape, they suddenly develop amnesia. Worse, they shame and blame the survivor, twisting the narrative to trivialise her trauma and erase her voice,” the Trinamool wrote on its X handle.
