Girls’ attendance dipped as soon as Monojit re-entered campus as staffer
Times of India | 2 July 2025
Kolkata: The notoriety of Monojit Mishra, the key accused in the rape of a first-year student on a law college campus, is such that after he had joined back the college in mid-2024 as an ad-hoc staff members, the attendance among girl students dropped sharply. Several girls said the college ambience changed dramatically after Monojit, an alumnus who was ousted from the college TMCP unit in 2021, returned to the campus. They said Monojit's very presence and gaze made them squirm, that they felt too uncomfortable and unsafe to be on the same campus as him. "Monojit would often click girls' photos, post them on groups, and propose to every other girl," said a fourth-year student. "After Monojit came back to the campus, the college environment changed so drastically, and for the worse, that we did not feel like attending classes. Till mid-2024, I would attend more or less all classes. But I stopped going to college altogether as Monojit's presence intimidated me. Similar was the situation for many other girls. I started focusing on internships," said a second-year student. Those who did not know Monojit till then, soon learnt about him.
Even boys on the campus claimed they were bullied and harassed by Monojit.
Monojit had first taken admission to the law college in 2012 but was expelled the next year for his criminal activities. He then took admission again in 2017. That very year, he had ransacked the campus, following which he was again barred from the campus for a while. Monojit subsequently graduated in 2022, apparently much to the relief of many. But in 2023, after the TMCP unit at the college was dissolved, Monojit was rehabilitated, brought back to the campus and unofficially given control of the college. In 2024, he re-entered as an ad-hoc staff member.
A fourth-year student pointed out that at the news of Monojit's appointment as an ad-hoc staff member at the college, many of the current students had staged a protest and told the authorities that considering his background and history, his presence would not be safe for students, especially girls. "But no one paid heed," the student said. A second-year student recounted that after Monojit re-entered the campus, he started controlling everything. "Faction clashes increased and students, especially girls, stopped attending classes as they did not feel safe," she said. Another student said Monojit had a demi-god status among some of the students and the administration. "He controlled every little thing. He had access to every document on the campus, like details of students, their phone numbers and addresses, and he would call them over phone or even send his cronies to issue threats at their residences," the student said. Stressing the kind of clout Monojit wielded, a second-year student said he was merely an ad-hoc staff member but he had the audacity of walking into a class during lectures and calling his associates away. "Sometimes, he would even call students outside from inside a class to threaten them," she said. A fifth-year student said, "Our past year's experience had been bitter. We stopped going to college as his gaze on women was disturbing".