Days after his arrest in connection with the rape of a 24-year-old law student in Kolkata, another student from the same college has opened up on Monojit Mishra’s “fear” on the campus.
Monojit Mishra – the prime accused – and two others were arrested after the survivor filed a police complaint, alleging that he raped her on the premises of the South Calcutta Law College.
Now, another student from the college has spoken up, alleging that women on the campus would consider skipping classes to avoid interaction with Mishra. Speaking to NDTV on the condition of anonymity, the student said that several students “feared” Mishra.
HT.com could not independently verify the authenticity of the claim.
“There was an atmosphere of intimidation on the campus. He used to click photos of female students, morph them and circulate them on WhatsApp groups,” the student said.
She added that Mishra had sexually harassed female students previously, adding that the students were scared to attend classes due to his “intimidation”.
The student further alleged that there have been several FIRs against Mishra, but no action was taken due to his “political influence”.
She added that nobody “dared to touch” Mishra because he was “politically safeguarded”.
“In 2019, he sexually harassed a woman in college, tore off her clothes. In 2024, he beat up a security guard and vandalised college property. He was also involved in some kind of theft,” the student told NDTV.
The student also claimed that Mishra’s parents had “disowned” him. Mishra’s father is a priest at Kolkata’s Kalighat temple.
Mishra and other accused ‘planned for days to torture the victim’: Police
The police on Monday said Mishra and the other two accused – Pratim Mukherjee and Zaid Ahmed – had been “planning to torture” the victim for several days.
A police officer told PTI that the crime “was premeditated”, adding that the victim “was targeted” from the very first day of her admission to the law college.
The nine-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the case also found out that the three accused had a history of sexually harassing female students on the campus. The trio would record these and blackmail the victims with the footage later.
Following this, the Kolkata police launched a search for the videos allegedly taken by the accused, with the residences of Ahmed and Mukherjee being searched on Sunday.
