Kolkata law college gangrape – Key accused had pre-planned the assault, says police.

Three of the four individuals arrested in connection with the alleged gang-rape of a female student at a city-based law college had meticulously planned the assault, a senior police officer said today.

According to investigators, the prime accused, Monojit Mishra, a former student leader and practising lawyer, had been pressuring the young woman for sexual favours over several days. When she consistently refused, Monojit allegedly orchestrated a violent assault on June 25 to “settle scores”.

“The entire incident was premeditated. The accused had been plotting this attack for days. Our investigation has revealed that the victim was targeted by Monojit from the moment she enrolled in the college”, an officer from the Special Investigation Team (SIT) said.

According to the police, Monojit had raped the female law student while the co-accused Pramit Mukherjee and Jayib Ahmed allegedly filmed the crime. The video was circulated within their private group and shown to the victim to intimidate her into silence. “This method of using video evidence to threaten survivors has been employed by the accused previously”, the officer added. “But this time, their tactics failed. Realising the situation was spiralling out of control, Monojit had sent his aides to monitor the survivor’s movements. On Thursday, he was informed that she had filed an official complaint”.

Further investigation has revealed that this was not the first such incident involving Monojit. The guard room — where the assault took place had been used multiple times in the past for similar acts, as it lacks CCTV surveillance. The SIT has identified at least one more survivor who claims to have been victimised by Monojit in the same location.

The police yesterday have raided the residences of Mukherjee and Ahmed in search of video evidence.

“We are looking for footage related to this case and potentially others. We’re also investigating whether these videos were shared beyond the private group”, the officer said.

Monojit had reportedly reached out to a political contact after the incident — someone who had previously helped him out of legal trouble. However, this time, the leader did not intervene. Police are now analysing call records of the three primary accused to uncover any influential connections that may have enabled Monojit to avoid consequences in the past.

As the investigation progressed, police unearthed Monojit’s disturbing criminal history. He is the accused in at least 24 separate cases registered with Kolkata Police. These include a 2022 rape case in the Kalighat area and multiple charges of intimidation, assault, and fraud. In 2014, an FIR was lodged at Bhowanipore Police Station accusing him of accepting bribes under the pretext of securing college admissions. In 2023, he was accused of molesting a woman in the Kasba area.

More recently, in March 2025, he allegedly barged into a police station and threatened officers after police refused to release an arrested associate during a clash between lawyer groups. Despite multiple arrests over the years, Monojit had always managed to secure bail.

Team Maverick