PTI, KOLKATA, JUNE 27, 2025 : A first-year student of a law college in south Kolkata was allegedly gang-raped inside the institution by an alumnus and two senior students, a police officer said on Friday. All three accused were arrested and produced before a court, which remanded them to police custody for four days. The process of the victim’s submission of a confidential statement before a judicial magistrate was also underway, police said.
Taking suo-motu cognizance of the incident that occurred on the evening of June 25, the National Women’s Commission asked the Kolkata Police to file a detailed action taken report within three days.
The incident at the South Calcutta Law College brought back the horrific memories of the rape and murder of an intern inside the city’s RG Kar Medical College in August last year, which created a major political dust-up across the state.
The prime accused in the recent incident is a former student of the institute and, ironically, a practising criminal lawyer at the Alipore Police and Sessions Court, college sources said. The two other accused are bona fide students of the college and senior to the victim, police confirmed. College authorities stated that the main accused was also engaged as a temporary non-teaching staff at the institution for a renewable contractual period of 45 days.
Social media profiles of the prime accused claimed that he is a former president of the college’s Trinamool Congress Chhatra Parishad unit and the organizational secretary of the south Kolkata wing of the TMC’s student body. The Trinamool Congress, though, denied having any current connection with the accused and pitched for “most severe punishment” if the accused were found guilty.
Police said that the alleged crime and torture took place inside a guard’s room on the ground floor of the college, next to the students’ union office, on the evening of June 25 and lasted for over two hours. Initial investigations revealed that the victim had reached the college in the afternoon to fill up certain academic forms after she was called by “some people.”
According to the complaint she filed at the Kasba police station on Thursday, she was asked by the miscreants to stay back. In the evening, she was allegedly taken to the room on the ground floor of the college and raped by the accused until around 10 pm. “We have sealed the room, and our forensic experts will soon be there to collect evidence,” the officer said.
The TMC condemned the incident and said it should not be politicized. Addressing a press conference, state minister Shashi Panja said the state government stands firmly with the student and her family. “This incident is extremely painful. Kolkata Police has already initiated action, and all information related to the probe is available to the public,” Panja said. “Instead of making the victim a battleground for politics, her pain must be understood, she must be respected, and justice must be ensured – swiftly and unconditionally,” she added.
Panja asserted that West Bengal is the only state to have demanded the passage of the ‘Aparajita Bill,’ which seeks stringent punishment for sexual offenders. “We want this Bill to become law. It will send a strong message and act as a deterrent,” she said. The TMC also said the Centre’s “indifference” towards the ‘Aparajita Bill’ was “deeply unfortunate.”
The Bill, tabled after the RG Kar hospital incident, aims to modify and introduce fresh provisions in the law related to rape and sexual offences.
