CU glare on hiring: Team visits law college, seeks Monojit Mishra’s appointment records
Telegraph | 3 July 2025
A five-member fact-finding team from Calcutta University visited South Calcutta Law College on Wednesday morning and sought details of the governing body meeting that approved the appointment of Monojit Mishra as a casual employee.
Mishra — the prime accused in the gang rape of a 24-year-old student on campus in Kasba on June 25 — was appointed in September last year on the governing body’s recommendation. His employment was terminated on Tuesday.
The president of the college’s governing body, Trinamool Congress MLA from Budge Budge Ashok Deb, who is also the president of the West Bengal Bar Council, announced on Wednesday that Mishra had been removed from the council. Mishra, 31, was a practising lawyer at the Alipore court.
“We have removed Monojit Mishra’s enrolment from the West Bengal Bar Council. He is no longer a member,” Deb said.
Governing body meeting
A member of the team from CU said they had asked vice-principal Nayna Chatterji for records of governing body meetings held over the past two years.
“Last week, the vice-principal said Mishra was appointed on the governing body’s recommendation. We want to know why this decision was made despite Mishra having at least 11 police cases against him, including molestation and assault,” the member said.
In May last year, the vice-principal filed an FIR at Kasba police station alleging that Mishra had assaulted a security guard and damaged college property.
“It’s not as if the college authorities were unaware of his record. Even then, the governing body, helmed by MLA Ashok Deb, approved his appointment. We want to see the resolution that approved this,” said a team member.
Another member added that the meeting in which his appointment was passed lacked a quorum. “We need to verify this through the meeting records.”
On Monday, MLA Deb had declined to explain how Mishra was appointed despite being arrested thrice — twice by Kalighat police and once by Kasba police.
Union room
The team also questioned why the student union room was open on June 25, given that college elections have not been held since 2017.
“Since there have been no elections for years, the union room should have remained shut. Yet it was open, used by students and even by Mishra,” a team member said.
“We also sought details of expenses incurred by the union,” another member said.
Admission racket
The CU team asked for admission data from the past three years following allegations surfacing that Mishra took bribes to secure illegal admissions.
A second-year student told The Telegraph on Monday that Mishra asked him to find students willing to pay for admission. “I later learnt he charged ₹1 lakh to ₹2 lakh for each illegal admission,” the student said.
A CU team member said, “We received complaints that candidates with ranks beyond 2000 in the university’s entrance test were admitted. Typically, in a government-aided college, only students within the top 700 ranks get admission.”
“One such allegation involves Zaib Ahmed, 19, the second-year student accused in the gang rape case, getting admission despite ranking 2634,” the team member said.
Besides Ahmed, Pramit Mukherjee, 20, also a second-year student, has been arrested. Mishra referred to both as his “brothers” on Facebook.
Pijushkanti Panigrahi, a team member, told reporters: “We asked the vice-principal to submit a report on admissions and campus security at the earliest.”
The vice-principal did not answer questions after the meeting.