IIT-BHU sexual assault case: Varanasi police file chargesheet in local court

Kunal Pandey (28), Saksham Patel (20) and Abhishek Chauhan (22) were arrested for the incident that took place inside the IIT-BHU campus on the night of November 1.

As per their social media profiles and their neighbours, the three men were associated with the Varanasi unit of the BJP IT cell. However, BJP Varanasi (Mahanagar) president Vidyasagar had said the three are no longer members of the party’s IT cell.

After the arrests, The Indian Express had reported that the three accused in the sexual assault case had told police during questioning that they were involved in three other incidents of molestation on campus, and that they would visit the premises regularly, ostensibly to look for “opportunities”. As per police officers who were part of the probe, an analysis of their call detail records had corroborated this, showing their location on the campus between 11 pm and 1 am frequently.

The police had said that they had received only one complaint – from the woman targeted in the November 1 incident. In her complaint, the woman had alleged that the accused had filmed the sexual assault.

The institute’s dean had confirmed to The Indian Express that a complaint regarding an incident on October 30 was received by the proctor’s office and that action was being taken.

Patel and Chauhan live at a distance of 300 metres in Varanasi’s Bajardiha area while Pandey lives about a kilometre away. The BHU campus is approximately 3 km from their residences.

An officer said that soon after the incident, police gathered CCTV footage from around the campus. “We scrutinised several videos and identified potential suspects,” said the officer. “Their initial images were blurry, so we gathered more footage. Clear photographs helped zero in on the men, and their movements were tracked over the past few days. We discovered they frequented the BHU campus between 11 pm and 1 am.”

As per police documents, a motorcycle used in the alleged crime, three phones, some cash and jewellery were confiscated from the accused during their arrest.

A local police officer in Varanasi said that at first, the accused denied their involvement in the incident. “But on proper interrogation, they confessed. We also showed them their photo from a CCTV camera on the night of the crime,” the officer said.