Law student 'gangrape' pre-planned, accused trio targeted victim for quite some time: Police
Kolkata (PTI): Three out of the four persons arrested in connection with the alleged gang-rape of a female student at a city-based law college had pre-planned the assault, a police officer said on Monday.
Sleuths of the nine-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the incident also found that the three accused — Monojit Mishra, Pratim Mukherjee and Zaid Ahmed — had a history of sexually harassing female students of the college.
The fourth accused is the college's security guard.
According to the officer, the trio would record such episodes on their mobile phones and later use the footage to blackmail the victims.
"The entire matter was premeditated. The trio had been plotting for several days to carry out this torture on the victim. We have found that the victim was targeted by the prime accused from the very first day she got admission to the college," the police officer said.
Kolkata Police has launched a search for mobile videos allegedly filmed by the trio.
"Searches were conducted at the residences of accused Mukherjee and Ahmed on Sunday. We are looking for footage related to this and possibly other incidents," the officer said.
The investigators also said a video clip of the June 25 alleged gangrape might have been shared by the accused.
"We are trying to find out whether those clips were forwarded or shared with some other groups. In that case, we have to get in touch with those who have received that," the officer said.
The SIT has prepared a list of over 25 people, mostly students of South Calcutta Law College, who were present at the educational institution on June 25 evening, he said.
"All these people will be questioned in connection with the investigation. We have to find out what they witnessed that evening," he said.
A female student of South Calcutta Law College in the city's Kasba area was allegedly gangraped by three persons, including an alumnus of the educational institution and two current students.
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Karnataka to witness heavy rain for next 10 days
Bengaluru: The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has forecast that the southwest monsoon will cause heavy rainfall likely this weekend and will drench Karnataka over the next 10 days.
The monsoon has begun retreating from northwestern India. Conditions remain active over the south, with an upper air trough extending up to 1.5 km over North Interior Karnataka and northern Tamil Nadu, combined with weakening monsoon winds across the peninsula, is driving the current spell. N. Puviarasan, head of the IMD’s meteorological centre in Bengaluru, said in a conversation with Deccan Herald, “As a result, the whole of Karnataka will see rain over the next week to 10 days."
With a cyclone in the Pacific Ocean along with a low-pressure system over the north Bay of Bengal, the monsoon is expected to intensify during the next four days. IMD has predicted heavy rains across South Interior Karnataka, including Bengaluru, throughout the weekend.
Bengaluru, recorded widespread moderate to heavy rainfall on Thursday. Between 8.30 am and 8.30 pm, Bengaluru city logged 45.9 mm of rain accompanied by thunderstorms. HAL airport registered 6 mm and the Bengaluru Urban automatic station recorded 47.5 mm. Doddathoguru, near Electronics City, reported 55 mm.
According to IMD forecast heavy rainfall will occur at isolated places in Bengaluru Urban, Bengaluru Rural, Yadgir, Koppal, Raichur, Ramanagara and Mandya districts in the next few days.
The southwest monsoon is now expected to extend until mid-October and with little or no break in between, the northeast monsoon is likely to follow immediately. These are expected to last until December. “There may be no break in between,” Puviarasan said.
