Latest news with #ParamanandMahaveerToppannawar
Indian Express
19-07-2025
- Indian Express
IIM Calcutta rape case: Court grants bail to accused, asks police about ‘delay' in recording woman's statement
AN ADDITIONAL Chief Judicial Magistrate court on Saturday granted bail to the arrested accused in the IIM Calcutta rape case. The court also questioned the police about why the woman complainant's statement had not been recorded. The court granted bail which was set at Rs 50,000 ( Rs 25,000 cash and Rs 25,000 personal bond) to the accused, Paramanand Mahaveer Toppannawar, a second year student at IIM Calcutta. The counsel for the accused, Subrata Sardar filed a bail application on Saturday, claiming that the complainant is currently untraceable. 'She failed to record her statement before the magistrate on three dates — July 13, July 15, and July 18…,' added Sardar. During the hearing, the judge asked, 'Why is the statement of the woman not yet recorded by the police?' According to the Chief Public Prosecutor, Sourin Ghosal, the statement of the victim has not been recorded as the investigation officer has 'not been able to speak to the woman.' Meanwhile, IIM Calcutta authorities have hired around 20 contractual staff members to 'act as guards.' According to officials, these individuals will be placed at the girl's hostel so that whenever outsiders like repairmen are required to undertake repairs, the staff will be present outside the area to ensure the security of the women. Delivery personnel are also barred from entering the girls' hostel and will hand over the parcels to the security personnel on the campus at the gate.
Indian Express
15-07-2025
- Indian Express
IIM-C's academic council to take call on student arrested for rape
The Indian Institute of Management-Calcutta (IIM-C) has called a meeting of its academic council this week over the arrest of a second-year student in a rape case. Paramanand Mahaveer Toppannawar, 26, was arrested last Saturday for allegedly raping a young woman in a hostel room on the Joka campus of the institute. He is in police custody till July 19. According to an official of the premier institute, the academic council will take a call on whether to allow Toppannawar to attend classes if the court grants him bail. 'Attendance is mandatory in the two-year MBA programme. Since Toppannawar is in police custody, he has missed some classes. So, the academic council of the institute has to take a legal opinion regarding whether to allow him to attend classes if he gets bail. If he is found guilty, his degree will be cancelled,' said an official. Following the arrest of the student in the rape case, the IIM-C, in a statement, had said: 'The institute has zero tolerance for such incidents and remains steadfast in upholding a safe and respectful campus environment. We are also taking all necessary steps to support the process of ongoing investigation and ensure that institutional protocols are adhered to.' The IIM-C had also sent an email to students, asking them to reach out to the institute's Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) and student council with any concerns or questions. A standard operating protocol (SOP) was also circulated for the students and professors living on the campus. Meanwhile, the SIT of Kolkata Police, which is probing the rape case, is screening through the call data records (CDR) of the accused and the woman to ascertain how long they knew each other. 'The accused is giving contradictory statements. Sometimes he says he met the woman on a dating app, sometimes he claims to know her through a counselling app. This needs to be investigated. We are also trying to know whether the accused used sleeping pills to spike the food and water offered to the woman,' a senior police officer involved in the probe said. In her complaint to the police on July 12, the woman, who claimed to be a psychologist, had alleged that Toppaunwar called her to the Joka campus a day ago for a 'counselling session', and the two had met on social media. The woman alleged that she lost consciousness and was raped after she consumed spiked food and water offered by the accused on a hostel room.
Hindustan Times
13-07-2025
- Hindustan Times
Police form SIT, women's commissions register cases in alleged rape at IIM-C
Kolkata: The Kolkata police on Sunday formed a nine-member special investigation team (SIT) while the West Bengal Commission for Women and its national counterpart registered suo-motu cases in the alleged rape of a 24-year-old woman on Friday by a second-year Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (IIM-C) student inside his hostel room on the campus, officials said. Police personnel deployed at IIM Calcutta after a student was allegedly raped inside the boys' hostel of the institute, in Kolkata, on Sunday. (PTI) The accused, Paramanand Mahaveer Toppannawar, 26, a resident of Karnataka, was arrested in the early hours of Saturday on the basis of a complaint lodged by the survivor at the Haridevpur police station in Kolkata. 'The SIT will probe all angles in the case. Phone calls made by the accused and the survivor and the chat history on their phone apps are being studied. Footages from all security cameras inside and outside the campus have been collected,' a police officer said requesting anonymity. 'The accused may be asked to take a medico-legal test. The clothes he wore during the alleged crime have been seized,' he added. Although the woman — a psychological counsellor who had met the IIM-C student on social media — had alleged in her complaint that she was drugged and sexually assaulted, her father told the media on Saturday that nothing happened to her. He claimed that she was 'asked to file the complaint' but did not elaborate. He did not face the media on Sunday. 'The woman refused to undergo a medical test till Sunday evening. This has to be done within 48 hours in a rape case,' said a second police officer. 'Security personnel on the IIM-C campus are being questioned to find out how a woman could reach a student's hostel room without signing the register for guests. We are also checking whether the student called the woman for psychological counselling as was claimed,' said the second police officer. 'Toppannawar's parents are also being questioned,' he added. State women's commission chairperson Leena Gangopadhyay said : 'We have taken suo motu cognizance because this is a serious offence. We are in touch with the Haridevpur police station.' With IIMC-C being a central institute, the issue triggered a political row with Archana Majumdar, a West Bengal-based member of the National Commission for Women, also taking cognizance of the case. 'The victim did not say in her complaint that she was raped. She said she was sexually assaulted. Her father also told the media that nothing happened to her. I tried to contact her father but his phone is switched off,' Majumdar said. The Bharatiya Janata Party targeted the ruling Trinamool Congress citing some recent incidents of rape and molestation in the state. 'Statements made by the woman's father and the circumstances indicate that there was a conspiracy,' former BJP state president Rahul Sinha said. TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said, 'We fail to understand what politics has got to do with the alleged rape of a woman inside a central institute's campus by a student.' According to the complaint, the survivor started to feel dizzy after having pizza and water that the accused had offered her for lunch in his hostel room. Toppannawar was charged under Sections 64 (rape), 123 (administering drug to commit offence), 127(2) (wrongful confinement), 115(12) (voluntarily causing hurt) and 76 (forcefully disrobing a woman) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. Kolkata's Alipore court remanded him in police custody till July 19 on Saturday.
