28 June, 2025:
In a horrifying incident, a first-year student of South Calcutta Law College was allegedly raped on campus by two senior students and an alumnus on June 25. All three accused have been arrested.
Shocking details have since emerged in the case. According to the 24-year-old victim’s police complaint, she was not only sexually assaulted but also filmed during the act, hit with a hockey stick, and blackmailed with threats to leak the video online. The prime accused, Manojit Mishra, allegedly also threatened to kill her boyfriend.
She claimed that Manojit Mishra, along with two others — 19-year-old first-year student Zaib Ahmed and 20-year-old student Pramit Mukherjee — sexually assaulted her, leaving her injured.
“She has alleged that the three accused had kept the mobile footage of the assault and threatened to release it on the internet if she talked to anybody about the incident,” a news agency reported citing police source. The police stated the mobile phones of the three accused have been confiscated and sent for forensic analysis.
The woman stated in the complaint that the main accused, Mishra, a former student and current general secretary of the Trinamool Congress Chhatra Parishad (TMCP), pressured her to marry him, but she refused, citing an existing relationship.
Recounting the horror inside the college campus, the victim said in her complaint: “He tried to force me with the intention of having sex."
“I touched his feet but he didn’t let me go. They again took me to the room, they took me to the guard room forcefully, he undressed me and started forcefully raping me," she said in her complaint.
According to sources cited by India Today, the survivor arrived at the college around 12 pm on Wednesday to fill out examination-related forms. She initially sat inside the college union room. As per her complaint, the accused later ordered the main college gate to be locked. She was allegedly raped inside the security guard’s room between 7:30 pm and 10:50 pm that day.
The police have conducted a preliminary medical examination of the survivor, recorded witness statements, and secured the crime scene for pending forensic tests.
Following the registration of an FIR at the Kasba Police Station, three persons — including the 31-year-old main accused Manojit Mishra — were arrested. All three were produced before the Alipore court on Friday and have been remanded to police custody till July 1.
Meanwhile, senior Trinamool Congress MP Kalyan Banerjee’s remarks on the case have triggered sharp condemnation from the opposition BJP in West Bengal. Mr Banerjee, MP from Sreerampur, made comments in response to media queries that the BJP has described as “disgraceful.”
"I am saying the same thing again and again. Whoever has done it must be arrested immediately. But if a friend rapes a friend, how can that be corruption?" Mr Banerjee said. "The condition of safety and security is the same everywhere. As long as the mindset of men remains this way, these incidents will keep occurring. You (reporter) have a political agenda, that's why you have brought this mic to ask your question,” the senior leader said.
The remarks have drawn criticism for appearing to deflect institutional accountability. Mr Banerjee refused to address links between the main accused and the Trinamool Congress's student wing, insisting that crime was not confined to any party or organisation.
While the police acted swiftly in the case, political controversy escalated after the survivor’s complaint identified one of the accused Manojit Mishra as having links to the ruling Trinamool Congress. In her statement, she described Mishra as a former student and the unofficial leader of the college’s TMCP (Trinamool Congress Chhatra Parishad) unit, stating that “everyone used to listen to him.”
The BJP released several photographs showing Mishra at party events and labelled the incident a direct result of "political protection for rapists." Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari called for state-wide protests and challenged the government to break its silence on party links.
"TMC MP comes out in support of rapists! In Kasba, a college student has been gang-raped by a TMCP leader and his gang. But TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee calls women's safety concerns a mere "political agenda." In the RG Kar rape case, as Bengal rose in protest through "Raat Jago," Kalyan mocks the movement and shamelessly claims the govt has no role if a rape happens inside a college. So the police can hold umbrellas for TMC leaders and Mamata Banerjee, but not protect women? This disgraceful attitude is why women in Bengal feel abandoned, unsafe, and unheard," the BJP said in a statement, sharing a clip of Mr Banerjee.
The incident again has sparked outrage across social and political circles, bringing back memories of the RG Kar Medical College rape case, which had triggered widespread protests and raised questions about campus safety in West Bengal.
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