Monojit Mishra, the arrested prime accused in the gang rape of a first-year student, had reportedly called Dr Nayna Chatterji, the Vice Principal of Kolkata law college, the morning after the crime.
According to news agency PTI, citing a well-placed police source, the nine-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Kolkata Police have found evidence of a conversation between Monojit and Dr Nayna while going through the phone call details record (CDR).
The IPS officer said the VP has since been questioned twice to know the details of their conversation.
“The CDRs of the mobile phones of the three arrested accused have been cross-checked. We found that there was a call from Monojit’s number to the college VP the next morning after the crime took place,” the officer told PTI.
“We have questioned the VP twice since yesterday to know the details of their conversation,” he added.
The officer also said that efforts were being made to find out “every detail” of the telephone conversation between the two.
An accused bought inhaler for victim, CCTV footage recovered
The officer told PTI that the police have also seized the CCTV footage of a medical shop from where one of the arrested accused, Zaib Ahmed, purchased an inhaler for the victim during the period of her torture inside the campus.
The IPS officer, citing the pharmacy owner, said, “Zaib Ahmed had gone to the medical store to fetch the inhaler. The owner of the pharmacy said that Zaib wanted to make half of the payment in cash and the rest via UPI, which we didn’t agree to. The accused then made the full payment online.”
“We have taken a note of their version,” he added.
According to earlier reports, the victim in her complaint said she requested her attackers to take her to a hospital after she fell ill during the torture. But after her plea was denied, she urged them to provide her with an inhaler to relieve her of the breathlessness she was suffering.
She mentioned in her complaint that Zaib, Mishra’s accomplice, had fetched that inhaler, which made her feel better, but only temporarily, since the torture resumed after that.
Police custody of the three main accused extended till July 8
The police custody of the three accused, Monojit Mishra, a temporary staffer and an alumnus of South Calcutta Law College, and two current students, Zaib Ahmed and Pramit Mukherjee, was extended by eight days till July 8 by a city court.
They were arrested on June 26 and produced before a court the following day, which initially remanded them to four days of police custody.
Upon production at Alipore Court on Tuesday, their police custody was extended till July 8.
A security guard of the college, Pinaki Banerjee, was also arrested on June 28 in connection with the case. His police custody was extended till July 4.
The extension of police custody came following a prayer by the public prosecutor and the investigating officer, who sought more time to question the accused.
According to PTI sources, the defence lawyers of the three—Mishra, Ahmed, and Mukherjee—did not move bail pleas and instead told the court that the accused were fully cooperating with the investigation and willing to help uncover the truth.