Kolkata B-school rape case: Woman wrote rape complaint at Police station, cops with CCTV back-up; form SIT for probe

KOLKATA: The 24-year-old psychologist, who was allegedly raped on the campus of a premier business management school in Kolkata, walked into Thakurpukur PS around 7.30pm on Friday, accompanied by a male friend, said police sources.

She wrote out her complaint while seated in front of the duty officer. The officers then escorted her to Haridevpur PS, where the complaint was formally lodged, an officer added.Police said they have CCTV footage to corroborate the facts, in response to the woman’s father’s claim that “nothing has happened.” On Saturday, police arrested second-year MBA student Paramanand Toppannawar. He has been remanded in police custody for seven days.

But barely 12 hours after the complaint was lodged, the woman’s father said the police had “made” his daughter file the complaint. Following this, police formed a nine-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the incident.

Meanwhile, a senior official of the institute told TOI that the accused and the woman had come together to the campus in a car and she had left the campus on her own after spending around 2 hours 45 minutes inside.

The official said the accused had informed the security office via mail that a friend would be coming to his hostel on Friday.The institute official said: “The two entered together in a car at 12.30pm when they first signed the logbook at entry gate. Next they signed at hostel gate at 12.45pm. The woman left on her own in a car after making exit entry at hostel gate at 3.10pm.”The SIT has collected CCTV footage from Thakurpukur PS, along with other evidence, to establish a clear chronology of Friday’s events.The woman, in her complaint, said she went to the campus around 11.45am on Friday for a private counselling session with Toppannawar when he took her to his hostel room, spiked her drink, and allegedly assaulted and raped her. But, on Saturday, her father told reporters that his daughter’s scooter rammed an auto on DH Road. She lost consciousness and woke up at SSKM, where cops questioned her and then made her write the plaint.

Since then, the woman has neither agreed to a medico-legal test nor submitted her apparel and cellphone.Police said they checked CCTV cameras and traffic records on DH Road and found no evidence of any accident between Friday afternoon and evening involving a scooter and auto rickshaw.“We have CCTV evidence that shows the woman entering Thakurpukur PS at 7.30 pm with another man. She narrated the ordeal, following which she wrote the plaint sitting inside the PS.

Once it was drafted, she was escorted in a police car to Haridevpur PS, under whose jurisdiction the institute falls,” said a senior officer. Cops said while there were some marks of assault on her body, they didn’t find any evidence of accident on her.

“She initially even confessed before the doctor at SSKM about the sexual assault and other physical assaults on her while she was inside the hostel room on Friday. But she has not been cooperating with cops since then,” said an officer.Police have come across inconsistencies even in her statement. While she had written in plaint that she was not allowed to enter her name in the register, institute officials said she had registered her name at 12.30 pm at the entrance and at 12.45 pm at the hostel gate. The register also shows she left the hostel at 3.10 pm after entering her exit time. The SIT summoned the woman and her parents to Haridevpur PS, but they didn’t turn up till late on Sunday.

Her father’s phone was also switched off throughout the day.(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme court directives on cases related to sexual assault)