Amid growing anger over the brutal gang rape of a Law College student, the Kolkata Police on Saturday arrested the security guard of the college. A female student of the South Calcutta Law College in Kolkata’s Kasba was allegedly gang-raped inside the campus on Wednesday.
With the latest arrest of the security guard – 55-year-old Pinaki Banerjee, the number of accused arrested so far has reached four. The police have already arrested three accused, identified as Monojit Mishra (31), Zaib Ahmed (19), and Pramit Mukhopadhyay (20).
The accused will be produced before the ACJM of Alipore, South 24 Parganas where police will seek their custody for further interrogation.
The alleged gang-rape of the student inside her college has triggered a massive political slugfest between the ruling TMC and the Opposition BJP.
The BJP has claimed that one of the accused Monojit Mishra was associated with the TCM and demanded West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s resignation over the incident.
“This incident reveals the character of TMC, their thoughts towards women. I demand the immediate resignation of Mamata Banerjee as the CM of West Bengal. Under her rule, no one is safe,” said BJP MLA Shankar Ghosh.
Referring to the reports that the accused committed the crime after the victim allegedly refused her marriage proposal, Ghosh said this was a “pre-planned” incident and that crimes against women are increasing day by day under the TMC rule.
“This is not about a marriage proposal. I think this was quite pre-planned. It is very shameful for our state, for every citizen of Bengal – the way criminal activity, especially atrocities on women, is increasing day by day, I don’t have any words. Everywhere you will see brutality towards women. I always think that the deteriorating culture of Bengal is only due to the irresponsible behaviour of the Bengal CM,” he added.
Meanwhile, the TMC has rejected the BJP’s allegation that the accused was a member of the Trinamool Chhatra Parishad (TMCP), the student wing of the Trinamool Congress.
“The accused was never the unit president of that college. In fact, there is no functioning TMCP unit there. His brief, junior role ended in 2022, and he is not part of any current committee. Attempts to falsely link TMCP to this crime are completely baseless,” said Trinankur Bhattacharjee, West Bengal State President – Trinamool Chhatra Parishad.