The recent arrest of Monojit Mishra, the prime suspect in the Kolkata campus gangrape case, has brought to light a decade-long pattern of alleged criminal activity. Mishra, a lawyer and a contractual staff at the law college where he along with two others allegedly raped a student on June 25, has 11 criminal cases against him — including of molestation, assault, and voluntarily causing hurt – registered in multiple police stations across Kolkata.
Mishra, who first joined the law college in 2007, soon came to be known for his highhandedness. But it wasn’t until 2013 that the first case was lodged against him, after he allegedly stabbed a member of the catering staff of the college and fled after an attempt to murder case was filed at the Kalighat police station.
Mishra resurfaced in 2017, when he came back on a fresh admission. That year in November, then principal, the late Debasish Chatterjee, reportedly filed a complaint against him for vandalising college property during a protest that he was part of, against “high college fee”.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a student and one of the complainants against Mishra, said, “He (Mishra) had gained so much confidence that he was roaming free despite so many cases against him that he would proudly refer to himself as “professional criminal”. I had filed two cases against him but he wasn’t arrested in either of the cases. No action was taken.”
More allegations against Mishra followed, including sexual misconduct and blackmailing women students using their private photographs and videos. Students alleged that despite several complaints to the police, these weren’t converted to FIRs.
When asked about this, a senior Kolkata police officer said, “I am not aware of the exact allegation or complaint you are talking about. In a few cases, the initial inquiry into the complaints were found to be unsubstantiated, non-cognisable offences, mostly filed as complaints and countercomplaints during campus fights.”
Though Mishra graduated from the college in 2022, he returned in 2023 as a contractual non-teaching staff who handled administrative duties at the college — leaving many baffled given his criminal record.
When asked about the appointment, Nayana Chatterjee, Vice Principal, said Mishra’s disruptive behaviour was “known to some, but perhaps not in detail,” and his appointment as a non-teaching staff was a “unanimous” decision by the present members of the Governing Body, including TMC MLA Ashok Kumar Deb.
In 2023, Mishra faced charges of wrongful restraint, voluntarily causing hurt with dangerous weapons, criminal intimidation, and outraging a woman’s modesty. September 2024 saw an FIR against him for beating a man with sticks and bricks, and causing serious injuries. In April this year, he was briefly arrested by the Kasba police station for allegedly assaulting officers and vandalising a police vehicle.
Of the 11 FIRs against him, The Indian Express accessed five that detail charges of sexual assault, molestation and physical assault.
* FIR No 139, filed on September 7, 2024, Tollygunj Police Station: Ashiq Iqbal, 24, a student at the law college, accused Mishra and a few others of assaulting him with bricks and stones, resulting in a forehead injury. The complainant was among those who were protesting against Mishra’s presence on the campus and were fighting to restrict the entry of an ex-student in the college. “He was not arrested but he has been named in the chargesheet,” said a police officer.
* FIR No 489, filed on December 1, 2023, Kasba Police Station: The complainant alleged that he was wrongfully restrained and attacked with a sharp object – a steel kada – and that the complainant’s senior too was allegedly assaulted by Mishra and the other accused. The complaint, which doesn’t specify the motive, goes on to allege that Mishra used abusive language and threatened them with dire consequences. The case was lodged under IPC Sections related to wrongful restraint, voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons and outraging the modesty of a woman, among other charges. None of the accused were arrested. Police say a chargesheet was filed against Mishra, but he got a bail.
* FIR No 104, filed in 2022 at Kasba Police Station, Kolkata: The FIR, filed on the basis of a complaint by a 20-year-old student, was filed under IPC Sections related to assault or criminal force to a woman with intent to outrage her modesty. The complainant alleged that Mishra and another student caught the victim by her hand and tried to outrage her modesty. An officer at the Kasba police station said, “He was arrested and later released on bail. Later, he was also named in the chargesheet.”
* FIR No 182, filed on July 10, 2019, at Gariahat Police Station: Registered under IPC Sections related to assault or criminal force to a woman with intent to outrage her modesty and wrongful restraint among other charges, the FIR states that on July 10, 2019, Mishra allegedly wrongfully restrained the complainant, a student of the law college, and assaulted her with fists and blows over a previous dispute. Officials at the Gariahat police station said that he was arrested in the case and was later released on bail.
* In December 2019, 55-year-old Mukunda Pandey submitted a complaint letter to the Anandapur police station alleging that Mishra and others came to his shop and abused him and his wife. The complainant said Mishra’s actions were prompted by a fight that he had on campus with his son. “He threatened us that if my son enters college, they will fire a bullet at him. He also warned us not to file a complaint.” When asked why no FIR was filed against Mishra in the case, an officer said, “The case is of 2019. We have to see what action was taken then. We are presently not in a position to divulge details about the complaint.”
Sources say the free run that Mishra enjoyed, despite the string of cases against him, was in no small part because of the patronage he enjoyed as a TMC student wing functionary from the college’s Governing Body.
Under The West Bengal Universities and Colleges (Administration and Regulation) Act, 2010, the government nominates four of the 10 members in the governing bodies of universities and colleges. The Governing Body is headed by the local MLA. Of the remaining six members, two are nominated by the college and the others are elected members. The term of the law college’s Governing Body ended in 2021 and has been on extension.
General Body President and TMC MLA Ashok Deb announced that the college would seek to cancel Mishra’s law license through the Bar Council. Deb had said that though he was the head of the college governing body, he never recommended Mishra’s name for appointment as a staff member.