Durgapur gangrape survivor undergoes identification of accused
The Statesman | 26 October 2025The scheduled Test Identification (TI) Parade of five of the six accused youths was conducted inside the Home in the presence of judicial executives. Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Rajib Sarkar supervised the procedure. The identification of the 2nd year student’s classmate Wasif Ali, who had accompanied the girl to a peri-urban forest area that night, was not required, as she already knew him.
The 23-year-old girl was taken from the guest house, where she is now staying, to the correctional Home, where all six are lodged during their judicial custody, at around 12:15 pm by the Investigating Officer Gautam Biswas of the New Township Police Station. Her face was covered with a wrap, and she was acompanied by her mother up to the gate of the Home.
Riazuddin Sheikh, Safikul Sheikh, Dipu Bauri, Firdos Sheikh and Nasiruddin Sheikh – all residents of Bijra village not far from the medical college – were arrested in two phases by the police on gang rape and snatching charges after the girl’s father lodged a complaint on 11 October. The complaint stated that the girl, hailing from Jaleshwar in Odisha, was gang-raped in the Parangunj forest, about a kilometre from the campus on 10 October late evening. The girl’s snatched cellphone was recovered from the possession of Firdos Sheikh.
Wasif was arrested on 14 October after the girl, in her official statement, claimed that her boyfriend had molested her in the jungle. The police later said only one person had carried out the alleged rape, as per the medico-legal report of the samples collected. The forensic report of the girl’s seized clothing is still pending. The Special Public Prosecutor assigned to the case, Bivas Chatterjee, said: “The biological samples gathered from the spot and from the persons involved constitute very important evidence in the case.”
The TI parade (under Section 54 of the BNSS) barely took 12 minutes, and the girl returned to her guest house shortly after. The ACJM said that the entire process was videographed and this would be submitted before the Court on 27 October, which is the next date for production of the accused. The officials did not divulge anything about the results of the parade. The advocates of the accused and the victim were also present.
The Chief Minister of Odisha, Mohan Charan Majhi, has already spoken with the victim’s mother, and has offered full
support and cooperation from the state government.
