The Indian Institute of Management-Calcutta (IIM-C) has called a meeting of its academic council this week over the arrest of a second-year student in a rape case.
Paramanand Mahaveer Toppannawar, 26, was arrested last Saturday for allegedly raping a young woman in a hostel room on the Joka campus of the institute. He is in police custody till July 19.
According to an official of the premier institute, the academic council will take a call on whether to allow Toppannawar to attend classes if the court grants him bail. “Attendance is mandatory in the two-year MBA programme. Since Toppannawar is in police custody, he has missed some classes. So, the academic council of the institute has to take a legal opinion regarding whether to allow him to attend classes if he gets bail. If he is found guilty, his degree will be cancelled,” said an official.
Following the arrest of the student in the rape case, the IIM-C, in a statement, had said: “The institute has zero tolerance for such incidents and remains steadfast in upholding a safe and respectful campus environment. We are also taking all necessary steps to support the process of ongoing investigation and ensure that institutional protocols are adhered to.”
The IIM-C had also sent an email to students, asking them to reach out to the institute’s Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) and student council with any concerns or questions. A standard operating protocol (SOP) was also circulated for the students and professors living on the campus.
Meanwhile, the SIT of Kolkata Police, which is probing the rape case, is screening through the call data records (CDR) of the accused and the woman to ascertain how long they knew each other.
“The accused is giving contradictory statements. Sometimes he says he met the woman on a dating app, sometimes he claims to know her through a counselling app. This needs to be investigated. We are also trying to know whether the accused used sleeping pills to spike the food and water offered to the woman,” a senior police officer involved in the probe said.
In her complaint to the police on July 12, the woman, who claimed to be a psychologist, had alleged that Toppaunwar called her to the Joka campus a day ago for a “counselling session”, and the two had met on social media. The woman alleged that she lost consciousness and was raped after she consumed spiked food and water offered by the accused on a hostel room.