Kolkata law student gang-rape: Cops arrest college security who 'stood guard' during assault
A fourth arrest was made in the Kolkata law student’s gang-rape case on Saturday. The West Bengal police arrested the security guard of South Calcutta Law College for allegedly "sitting outside the guard's room" while the accused committed the horrific crime.
Pinaki Banerjee (55), the security guard of South Calcutta Law College has been arrested in connection with the case, police said. "The security guard was arrested this morning after we found that his replies were incoherent. His presence at the college has been captured in the CCTV installed in the college," police told PTI.
Police said the security guard provided inconsistent answers regarding the incident and he is yet to explain why he did not act against other accused when the incident happened. "Also, he needs to reply on why and whose instructions he left his room. This is also a kind of involvement in the crime," the police officer told the publication.
The 24-year-old first-year law student was allegedly raped by a former student of the college on June 25, while two senior students watched guard. The victim alleged the accused filmed the act and was blackmailed by them. Police registered an FIR and arrested the accused based on the complaint filed by the victim the next day.
Social media profiles of the prime accused show that he is a former president of the college's Trinamool Congress Chhatra Parishad unit and organisational secretary of south Kolkata wing of the TMC's student body, PTI reported.
According to Hindustan Times, medical examination and police reports have revealed the horrific details of the Kolkata gang-rape case. According to the victim's complaint, the student had gone to the college premises to complete a few formalities related to a test on the day. Around 6.10pm, while she was preparing to leave the union room, the main accused approached her and asked her to stay, the victim charged.
The prime accused offered her a key position in the students' union and later proposed to her for marriage. When she tried to leave the room, he instructed two other individuals to step outside and guard the door, the publication reported.
In the FIR, which was accessed by the Hindustan Times, the victim says though she had pleaded with the main accused several times to let her go, he refused. “I touched his feet but he did not let me go, he did not listen,” the victim charged. The main accused then asked the two other individuals to take her to the guards room and asked the guard to sit outside which he had done.
The assault was committed by the main accused while the other two stood and watched, according to the FIR. The main accused also threatened her and said that they would kill her boyfriend and arrest her parents. They also blackmailed her using videos they took of her assault. He threatened to show everyone this video if "I do not cooperate and come whenever he calls me,” the statement read.
According to police, the assault lasted over three hours while she was confined to the guard’s room. The woman said that the main accused also tried to hit her with a hockey stick. She said, “I just left myself like a dead body. He finished his forceful penetration and then left me. I went outside the room at 10.05pm. He asked me not to tell anyone.”
According to police, the victim had pleaded to the accused to take her to a hospital when she faced difficulty breathing, which the accused refused. They later got her an inhaler from the medical store. According to the police, the incident lasted from 7.30pm to 10.50pm on June 25. The student had informed her parents later that night and the police complaint was filed the next day.
Chief Police prosecutor Sourin Ghosal, who spoke to the PTI, said that “All persons in a group involved in cases of gang-rape must be held liable, even if all of them did not commit the act of rape. In this case, two other persons helped in the rape. So this is a case of gang-rape, and they are also accused in the case”.
India