Calcutta HC orders closure of all Bengal college union rooms until fresh elections in wake of Kolkata rape case

A division bench of Justices Somen Sen and Smita Das directed the State Higher Education Department to issue notices to the college and universities to lock the union rooms.

The union rooms can't be used for recreational purposes, cleared the court.

No student union elections have been held in the state since 2017.

The ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC), which has an absolute dominance in the state politics, cites the change in the examination pattern and losses of classes due to Covid-19 as the reasons behind the delay in the elections.

The court came down heavily upon the government after the female student's alleged rape by three men including a TMC functionary inside the union room at South Calcutta Law College in Kolkata's Kasba area more than a week ago.

Monojit Mishra, a 31-year-old alumni and TMC functionary who had unrestricted entry into the college campus, is the prime accused in the rape case.

The two other accused have been identified as 19-year-old Zaib Ahmed and 20-year-old Pramit Mukhopadhyay. All three have been arrested.

Monojit Mishra, who has been disowned by the ruling party, is a member of the TMC's student wing, and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has shared photographs of him with senior members of the ruling party, including MP, national general secretary, and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's nephew, Abhishek Banerjee, as well as minister Chandrima Bhattacharya.

In chilling details from the FIR accessed by various media, the survivor said one of the three accused asked her to stay a little longer at around 6:10 pm when others were preparing to leave.

"He called me outside the room (Union room) and told me that from the very first day he likes me. After his girlfriend he is in love with someone and that is me and he gave a proposal for marriage," the victim claimed as quoted by Hindustan Times.

As per the FIR, she had packed her bag and was getting ready to leave when Monojit instructed others to leave the room and lock the door.

"It was within fraction of second…He took me near the washroom and tried to force me with the intention of rousing sex," the FIR said.

The victim claimed she had pleaded to the main accused to leave her but he didn't let her go.

"I touched his feet but he did not let me go, but he did not listen," the FIR quoted the victim as reported by the daily.

"He asked the other two to take me inside the guard’s room and make the guard sit outside. They did so," he added.

The victim claimed in the FIR that the two other men stood by and watched.

Monojit allegedly threatened to kill her boyfriend and arrest her parents.

The survivor further said she was shown two videos of her being naked from the time when he raped her and theatened to show it to everyone upon non-cooperation.

She alleged the prime accused tried to hit her with a hockey stick but left her like a dead body after the forceful penetration in the guard room.

According to the FIR report going viral, during her ordeal she had a panic attack and begged her tormentors to take her to hospital or get her an inhaler. They got her an inhaler from a nearby medical store, the shocking details revealed.

The victim said she left the room at 10:05 pm and told her parents about the incident later that night.

The alleged incident occurred between 7:30 pm and 10:50 pm.

The alleged incident occured less than a year after a junior doctor was brtually raped and murdered at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata.