Police officers investigating the alleged gang rape of a student at a Kolkata law college last month are working to identify individuals the prime accused, Monojit Mishra, met with just hours before his arrest, PTI reported citing an officer on Wednesday.
Authorities are also examining whether the two other accused, Zaib Ahmed and Pramit Mukherjee, were in contact with anyone before their detention.
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It is alleged that Mishra, an alumnus, raped the first-year student inside a security guard’s room in South Calcutta Law College on June 25 evening while Ahmed and Mukherjee, her seniors in the institute, helped him.
“Their mobile phone location showed them moving around Ballygunge Station Road and Fern Place on the evening of June 26. The mobile tower dump is being used for the purpose,” the officer said.
“The movement of the accused three is very important for the sake of the investigation. We are analysing the call detail records; we need to know the purpose of these meetings, which could have links to the case,” he said.
According to the detectives, the trio were giving contradictory statements to mislead the police.
“Because these three are law students, they know certain tricks. They are giving out contradictory statements to confuse us,” he said.
According to a report by the Times of India, Monojit told police he was “confident” the survivor would not report the crime, believing that the video of the assault on their phones would serve as a deterrent.
Despite having charge sheets filed against him in all 11 FIRs registered since 2013, he had remained free and was certain he would escape consequences this time as well.
A stain was found on a bed sheet seized from the guard’s room and the police are trying to find out if that had any connection with the rape.
Meanwhile, the Detective Department (DD) of the Kolkata Police on Wednesday took over the investigation of the crime, an officer said.
“So far, the SIT had been probing into the matter. Now, the DD section will be investigating. Necessary documents have been handed over. They have added charges like kidnapping and causing harm with dangerous weapons,” he said, as reported by PTI.
(With inputs from agencies)