Bengal Gangrape Case: Friend in custody, police want to know why he didn’t seek help or raise alarm

“We are examining the evidence that may establish his role in the case, including why he did not raise an alarm or seek help immediately after returning to the campus alone,” said a senior police officer involved in the probe.

According to the police, as well as the medical college, the woman student and her male friend had left the campus at 7.58 pm on Friday. Nearly half an hour later, by 8.42 pm, the male friend returned alone and left the campus again at about 8.48 pm. The two returned together at 9.29 pm.

While seeking his custody, the public prosecutor told the court that the police wanted to conduct a medico-legal test on him. His clothes and shoes from the night of the incident have been seized and will be sent for forensic analysis, a police officer said.

While recording her statement under Section 164 of the BNSS on Tuesday, the woman student had said that her male friend “molested” her and fled during the alleged assault by one of the local villagers.

The woman’s father, who had filed the police complaint after reaching Paschim Bardhaman on Saturday from his native place in Odisha, had earlier raised suspicion over her male friend’s role, alleging that he “misled” his daughter to a vacant place after leaving the campus. He had also alleged that the friend was involved and that the assault on her daughter was premeditated.

Sources in the police said that they are probing whether the friend had any link with the accused villagers.

Police had earlier told The Indian Express that one of the accused villagers had called the woman student or her male friend. “We tracked that phone signal and located the cellphone tower. After that, we carried out a massive search operation and identified the three accused and arrested them,” a police officer had said on Monday.

“He had been on our suspect list from the beginning of the probe,” said a senior officer, adding that investigators found “inconsistencies” in his statements during questioning.

The friend was arrested soon after the reconstruction of the crime scene, which was videographed. He was accompanied by one of the five accused to the crime scene.

The five arrested villagers have been identified as Apu Bauri (21), Firdous Shiekh (23), Shiekh Riazuddin (32), Safiq, 27, and Sheikh Nasiruddin, 24.

Commissioner of Police (Asansol-Durgapur Commissionarate) Sunil Chowdhury said on Tuesday that the woman in her statement had said that the sexual physical assault was done by one of the five arrested locals.

Besides charges of gangrape and criminal conspiracy, police had added three more BNS sections in the FIR – 304(2) for snatching, 308(2) for extortion, and 317(2) for retaining stolen property.

Mamata mother-like figure… I ask her forgiveness: Father

The father of the woman student on Wednesday described West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee as a “mother-like figure” and urged her to forgive him if he had said anything wrong against her.

Two days ago, the father had slammed the chief minister for saying that “women should not venture out at night”, and said that he no longer felt safe in West Bengal.

Speaking to mediapersons on Wednesday, the father said, “Mamata Banerjee is like a mother-like figure to me. If I have said anything wrong, I ask her to forgive me. I will render countless obeisances at her feet. But I ask her to help my daughter get justice.”

He said that he would take his daughter back home once she is declared fit by the treating doctors. “My daughter’s future is finished… I want to appeal that my daughter gets justice and the accused get stringent punishment so that other women of Bengal do not face what my daughter faced,” he said.

Reiterating his demand for a CBI probe into the incident, he said: “I have been demanding a CBI probe into this case. I think that would be good. But that depends on the state administration as well,” he said. PTI