‘She wasn’t raped, just fell from an auto’: Kolkata top B-School 'rape' FIR turns murky; father says police 'forced' daughter to file complaint

KOLKATA: A 24-year-old woman lodged a rape complaint against a 2nd-year student of one of India’s premier management institutes on Friday evening, leading to the latter’s arrest.

Barely 12 hours later, however, the woman’s father denied “anything had happened” and suggested cops had “made” his daughter file the complaint, turning on its head another seemingly openand-shut case of campus rape.Cops picked up Paramanand Toppannawar, a resident of Balikot in Karnataka, from the institute’s campus on the southern fringes of the city post-midnight after the survivor lodged a complaint at Haridevpur police station late on Friday.

He was picked up from his room at 12.15am, produced in court on Saturday afternoon and remanded in cop custody for seven days.“We are treating this matter with utmost seriousness and are fully cooperating with law enforcement authorities, who are currently conducting an investigation,” the institute said in a press statement.The complaint registered by the woman, a psychologist, on Friday evening said the two had first connected online and Toppannawar had called her to the institute campus for acounselling session (for himself).

According to her complaint, the first red flag — which she realised later — came when she entered the campus at 11.45 am but was “not allowed” to register her name in the visitors’ log. (Institute insiders, however, said this was not true.) Once inside the campus gate, Toppannawar led her to his room at the men’s hostel citing privacy concerns. It was there that she was offered a slice of pizza and a drink and she began feeling “dizzy” almost as soon as she finished the drink, cops said quoting from her complaint.

She then told Toppannawar that she wanted to use the washroom (just outside his room) because she felt like throwing up but was not allowed; Toppannawar claimed it would be a problem for him if other students spotted him with a woman.

Doing everything as per law but family stonewalling investigation, say police

The woman wrote in her complaint, “He suddenly grabbed my hair during our conversation. I slapped him in defence but he then grabbed my neck and hand. I do not remember anything after that — where I was or what I was doing —but can recall him touching me inappropriately, grabbing my waist and pulling down my pants.

He sexually assaulted me. I found myself on his bed when I regained my senses.”She said she somehow pulled herself together and managed to leave the campus, following which she contacted a friend who asked her to immediately report the matter to the police. She first went to Thakurpukur police station from where where she was guided to Haridevpur, where the complaint was registered.The entire case, however, was turned on its head barely 12 hours after the woman registered the FIR.

Her father told several television channels — with his back to the cameras — that no one tortured her daughter and that she had only suffered some injuries after falling off an autorickshaw.“My daughter called me around 9.40 pm to say she had hurt herself after falling from an auto. Haridevpur cops rescued her and took her to SSKM Hospital. Cops told me my daughter had been abused and one person had been arrested but my daughter told me nothing of this sort had happened.

Cops told her to say certain things during the medical examination that she did not say,” he added. “She has no connection with the arrested person.

I do not know where Haridevpur cops found her. My daughter said the police made her write the complaint,” he said in a statement filled with gaps.Cops, taken aback by this development, said they acted only after the woman (a psychologist) lodged a complaint and were doing everything according to law.

“Our immediate challenge is to prove the sequence of events,” an investigator said. “We have repeatedly gone to the woman’s home but the family is stonewalling us. They have not given us her clothes and mobile — all crucial pieces of evidence — and are going on telling us that the woman is sleeping,” a senior official said.Officials started a case under BNS Sections 64 (rape) and 123 (causing hurt by means of poison or other harmful substances with intent to commit another offence) and then added BNS Sections of 127(2) (wrongful confinement), 115(2) (voluntarily causing hurt) and 76 (assault or use of criminal force on a woman with intent to disrobe her).State counsel Sourin Ghosal asked the court for Toppannawar’s police custody, claiming he was “influential” and could destroy evidence; he was also not cooperating with the probe. “It is an ideal case of matching merit with mismatching mental health (sic). He may be meritorious but the crime he has committed speaks of his mentality,” Ghosal said. Defence counsel Subrata Sardar said the complaint itself was “fishy”.

“The woman was on the campus from 11.45 am to 8.30 pm. But the complaint was lodged at 8.30 pm at a police station 4.5 km away. How is it possible?” he asked.Mother of rape accused Paramanand Mahaveer Toppannawar who reached Kolkata from Karnataka on Saturday said: “My son is innocent. He has come so far to study. He will never do such a dirty thing,” she said. “We received a call from his friend around 11 pm. He told us that my son has been arrested and he didn’t know the reason...

We have no clue why our son has been arrested... We want to meet our son and talk to him... He was in the final year of his college.

.. We do not know anything here in Kolkata — where the police station is or where the court is. All we know is that our son is innocent.”(The victim's identity has not been revealed to protect her privacy as per Supreme court directives on cases related to sexual assault)