Kolkata: A second-year law student, known as the "general secretary" on the law college campus, claimed she could not recollect the time of meeting the rape survivor last Wednesday evening or the conversation she had with her. Students at the college claimed the "GS", a TMCP member, was close to key accused Monojit Mishra.
In the absence of an official students' union at the law college, Monojit apparently assigned posts to people close to him. But the girl denied both, saying she was "not the GS" and distanced herself from Monojit and his associates.
The rape survivor, in her detailed complaint, mentioned she spent at least three hours with the "GS" last Wednesday. She wrote she was with the "GS" when she was about to leave the campus around 4 pm, but one of the co-accused called them to the union room to "discuss the college TMCP unit". Monojit and co-accused Pramit Mukherjee and Zaib Ahmed were in the union room. Around 7.30 pm, the "GS" left, saying she would be back but did not return, the survivor stated in the complaint.
The "GS" claimed she knew the survivor as a junior but denied accompanying her to the union room on the fateful day. "That day, I reached college around noon and left around 7 pm after playing badminton. I do not remember the time of meeting the girl that day, the conversation we had or going to the union room as a few days have passed. I did not accompany her to the union room. I can't tell how she went to the union room. I recall telling her, ‘ami aschhi', by which I meant ‘I was leaving' but she might have misinterpreted it as ‘I would return'," the second-year girl told TOI. Many students insisted the "GS" was part of Monojit's gang. Some indicated it was not the first time that the "GS" had taken a woman to Monojit. They alleged the "GS" and another girl student acted as conduits through whom Monojit reached out to girls he fancied. While some did not dare refuse Monojit's advances and suffered silently, others stopped going to college. "Both GS and her close friend verbally abused people and engaged in character assassination of any girl, who tried to speak out against Monojit. These two girls never respected the dignity of a woman," a student said.
"Apart from Pramit and Zaib, there were others in Monojit's gang, including a second-year student who carried out every instruction Monojit gave—from stalking to threatening women. But he still came to protest against this rape," said a second-year student. "There were two other boys, one a batchmate, who has distanced himself, and another from 4th year.