Law college rape: Kolkata Police's Detective Department takes over probe, adds new sections against accused

Kolkata, July 2 (IANS) The Kolkata Police's Detective Department (DD) on Wednesday took over the investigation into the rape of a law student within her college premises at Kasba in south Kolkata last week.

The investigation was initiated by local Kasba police station, whose personnel also arrested the three prime accused in the case within 24 hours from the time of lodging of a complaint by the victim, soon after the crime was committed on the evening of June 25.

Later, a special investigation team (SIT) headed by an assistant commissioner of police-level officer was also constituted to probe the matter. However, on Wednesday, the higher authorities of the city police decided to hand over the charge of the probe to the Detective Department.

The Detective Department sleuths have started the probe process by adding new sections against the three prime accused persons in the case, namely Monojit Mishra, Jaib Ahmed, and Pramit Mukhopadhyay.

Initially, they were charged with sections of rape. However, with the Detective Department taking over the investigation, sections relating to abduction and causing injuries with weapons were also slapped on the three accused persons.

Mishra, a former student of the law college, has been identified as the main architect in the crime of rape, while, Ahmed and Mukhopadhyay have been identified as the facilitators of the crime.

The fourth arrested person in the case is Pinaki Banerjee, a security guard attached to the law college campus at Kasba. As per the statement given by the victim to the police immediately after the event of sexual assault on her on June 25 evening, Banerjee had been identified as the "sole helpless witness" to the crime of sexual assault on her.

On Tuesday, a trial court in Kolkata extended police custody for Mishra, Ahmed, and Mukhopadhyay till July 8. The trial court also extended the police custody for Banerjee till July 4.

A public interest litigation has been filed before the Calcutta High Court seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe in the matter, and the hearing of this is likely to be conducted on Thursday.

--IANS

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