Kolkata: A day after the rape of a law student on the campus came to light, the south Kolkata college administration installed multiple CCTV cameras at strategic points on the premises on Saturday. Several police personnel were stationed outside the college and it was barricaded. Students and alumni felt the college authorities should have been proactive much earlier, as an incident like this was waiting to happen. They pointed to the rampant presence of outsiders and the state of lawlessness on the campus. "The union room is the seat of all unscrupulous activities. Outsiders have unrestricted access to the college. The main accused behaves like a supreme power and decides everything. We are scared to go to our college," said a student. Another student said while this incident came to light, there had been other incidents in the college in the past that were suppressed.
Local shopkeepers said while the college got over in the afternoon, students and outsiders used to hang inside till late at night. A judge's daughter who studied in the college for six months took to social media on Saturday to recount the horror. "I never imagined a law college could be like this. . . I witnessed horrible behaviour of students. . . There were fewer classes and more unruly behaviour. They would disrupt classes, and whenever they could, they would enter the class and take students away in front of the teachers. Ragging was rampant. "Another alumnus said the administration was ruled by ‘dadas' who had political affiliations. He recalled there were days when they had no option but to climb the gate to submit projects as the gates were locked due to political skirmishes by two groups. Advocate at Calcutta High Court, Kanchan Jaju, batch of 2018-2023, said, "It was the first batch at the new campus. I personally never associated myself with politics but there was always politics on campus. It is not a bad thing, but the ‘dadagiri' associated with it is. . . " Senior advocate at HC, Arindam Das, was a student at the college from 2001-2006. He studied at the old campus. "Politics was always a part of the campus. But it had not stooped to this level. " (Inputs from Choutisha Chakraborty, Oishinee Majumdar & Soham Halder)