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The Hindu
08-08-2025
- Politics
- The Hindu
Unhappy over probe, R.G. Kar victim's parents meet CBI director; assured all assistance
Parents of the R.G. Medical College rape victim met CBI Director Praveen Sood on Thursday (August 7, 2025) to express their dissatisfaction with the agency's probe in the rape and murder of their daughter, officials said. The parents, who arrived at the agency headquarters in the afternoon, received a patient hearing from Mr. Sood, who assured them "all assistance" in bringing the culprit to justice, they said. This is the second meeting Sood has had with them. It lasted for half an hour. The 26-year-old trainee post-graduate doctor was raped and murdered in the R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata in the Chest Medicine Department's seminar hall where she was on her night shift duty on August 9 last year. The crime sent shock waves across the country sparking massive protests by doctors and medical students. The CBI's probe nailed civic volunteer Sanjay Roy, who was handed over life imprisonment in January. The CBI has challenged the decision in Calcutta High Court seeking death penalty for Roy. The parents, however, remained convinced that Roy did not act alone and there may be a cover up of the incident. "From day one, we have said there was more than one person. She was a strong girl. There is no way only one man could have done this inside such a secure building. All the early cover-ups point to a bigger nexus," the victim's mother had said Sunday. Her father alleged that attempts were made to destroy evidence. "There were three bodies at the crematorium that day. Yet our daughter's body was cremated first. Why the hurry? Steps were taken to wipe out evidence," he alleged. The parents also plan to meet senior leaders including Home Minister Amit Shah. To mark the first anniversary of the tragic incident, two public events are scheduled in Kolkata in which protesters are expected to march to Kalighat area, where Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee resides. 'Abhaya Mancha', a forum formed in the wake of the incident, will observe Raksha Bandhan that day. On August 14, it plans a 'Reclaim the Night' march across Kolkata and the suburbs from 9 pm to midnight. Roy was handed life term by Additional District and Sessions Judge in Sealdah, Anirban Das. The court had also ordered Roy to pay a fine of ₹50,000 and directed the state government to pay compensation of ₹17 lakh to the family of the deceased. Judge Das stated that the crime did not fall under the "rarest of the rare" category, which justified the decision to not impose the death penalty on the convict. Roy, a former civic volunteer with the Kolkata Police, was found guilty under Sections 64 (rape), 66 (punishment for causing death), and 103(1) (murder) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). The CBI challenged the order saying the case was indeed a 'rarest of rare' incident in which death penalty would be an appropriate punishment for Roy.
The Wire
12-07-2025
- Politics
- The Wire
Most Bengal Colleges Have Not Had Elections in Years. Yet the TMC 'Controls' Student Unions
Earlier this month, the Calcutta high court asked the Bengal government to lock union rooms in colleges and universities where there is no recognised student body or where no student body elections had taken place in the recent past. A crime against a woman prompted the petition and direction. Ten months after the rape and murder of a young doctor at the R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital shocked the state, the gang-rape of a 24-year-old student at the South Calcutta Law College has once again stunned all. Like the earlier crime, this too has gone some way in exposing the systemic rot in Bengal's higher educational institutions and renewed demands for accountability. Most of all, it unveiled the question of whether the ruling Trinamool Congress, its leaders and supporters, are running a parallel rule in the state's colleges. In both cases – at R.G. Kar and the law college – the accused have had close links to the Trinamool Chhatra Parishad (TMCP), the student wing of the TMC. Much can be said about the impunity enjoyed by these politically affiliated leaders on campus. At present, Bengal social media and media spaces are flush with footage depicting lawlessness, physical and verbal violence and sexual crimes in colleges. Manojit Mishra, the prime accused in the law college case, has been named in at least 10 police complaints, including ones levelling serious allegations of stabbing and molestation. Yet, despite this, he was appointed as a contractual employee at the institution, reportedly on the recommendation of the college's governing body, chaired by a senior TMC MLA, Asok Deb. 'Shouldn't those involved in student politics be allowed to work? Should they remain unemployed?' asked Deb. Mishra, according to reports, addresses Deb as ' jyethu ' or uncle. Elections The systematic rot in West Bengal's education system has roots stretching back to 2013. In February 2013, the fatal shooting of police sub-inspector Tapas Choudhury during student union elections at Harimohan Ghosh College in Kolkata, allegedly by a TMCP-linked gunman, prompted the TMC government to suspend all such elections. This was followed by the death of the 22-year-old Rabindra Bharati University student and Students Federation of India leader Sudipto Gupta in police custody after Gupta participated in a protest against the freeze in April 2013. Despite occasional polls in some institutions between 2013 and 2016 – which were mostly won by the TMCP – a complete campus-wide democratic process never resumed. In the absence of such elections, colleges have seen takeovers – sometimes violent – by affiliates of the ruling party. In 2015, Krishna Prasad Jana, a member of Chhatra Parishad, the Congress students' wing, was murdered in Sabang College in Paschim Medinipur, allegedly by TMCP supporters. The assault and forced resignation of the principal of the Raiganj University, an MLA, Arabul Islam, throwing a water jug at a teacher in Bhangar College, and TMCP vandalism at Presidency University following a defeat marked the quick slide in this regard. 'Those who murdered our party worker are now observing Martyrs' Day and even forcing the martyr's family to stand with them. Earlier, when other parties were in power in West Bengal, such coercive politics of poaching and intimidation never existed,' said Priyanka Choudhury, state president of the Chhatra Parishad. 'Union fees' and 'leaders' quota' In 2012, Shibashis Bandyopadhyay, then a principal of Rampurhat College in Birbhum fell ill after a violent attack by TMCP supporters in the college premises. He soon applied for a transfer to another college. Speaking to The Wire, he said, 'Principals are now sandwiched between politics and responsibility. Local MLAs' nominees run colleges. Governing body presidents used to be elected, now they are appointed. We're forced into compromises. If we object, we're either beaten, harassed, or suspended. Many principals are currently suspended. Even speaking out is seen as a crime. But how long can we stay silent?' The accountability vacuum created by the election freeze has fuelled rampant corruption. During this time, lines within the TMCP have deepened and infighting has been rampant over 'profits' from corrupt practices like charging money to facilitate admissions admissions. In 2018, this crisis reached a breaking point with a student dying by suicide amidst a flood of extortion complaints, compelling the Mamata Banerjee government to promise to revamp the state's college admissions system. 'In 2015, aside from regular fees, I paid Rs 100 in 'union fees', along with library and cycle stand charges, an extra Rs 700 in total. Later, we were told that getting Honours seats was nearly impossible unless we accessed the 'leaders' quota'. That opened the door to big-money deals. Multiply this across hundreds of students annually, and the total unofficial income is enormous,' shared Mrinmoy Biswas, a student from Ranaghat in the Nadia district. The extent to which these unions enjoy unbridled financial powers and very little concern for how they wield it was evident in an incident which is being remembered in Kolkata circles these days. In 2022, renowned singer KK (Krishna Kumar Kunnath) tragically died of a heart attack hours after performing at Kolkata's Nazrul Mancha. Attendees spoke of severe overcrowding, with the crowd exceeding double the auditorium's capacity. This overwhelmed the air-conditioning, creating suffocating conditions – a discomfort KK himself reportedly voiced during the performance. While the TMCP unit of Gurudas College, which unofficially controls its student union, claimed that the college and students had funded the fest – and not the union – critical questions remained. In the absence of formal college elections, how did the ruling party's student wing get access to these funds? Who allowed them to control the funds and organise the show thus? 'Temporary,' says education minister 'TMCP leaders, empowered to organise student groups, have turned into plunderers. I've faced brutal attacks for opposing their corruption. This is a full-blown syndicate. They control honours seat allocations and quotas, are adept at fund embezzlement, and even appoint themselves as non-teaching staff via governing bodies. They profit from every avenue possible and are even pocketing construction commissions, and more,' said former SFI leader Pratikur Rahman. In the last decade, a clear pattern of politicised appointments has emerged across West Bengal's higher education institutions. Former leaders of the the ruling party's student wing have been systematically rewarded with administrative and non-teaching jobs. At Ashutosh College, a powerful TMCP leader, Sarthak Banerjee, became head clerk, and the former general secretary became the college accountant. Surendranath College saw at least four similar appointments. This trend extends statewide, with former TMCP general secretaries and leaders securing positions as non-teaching or even academic staff at colleges. 'The appointments made in colleges are temporary and have no long-term future. The state is now focusing on initiating student union elections in colleges,' state education minister Bratya Basu told The Wire. But Keshab Bhattacharya, state secretary of the Left-affiliated college teachers' organisation West Bengal College And University Teachers Association disagrees. 'The ruling party decides who represents the faculty. They even install handpicked alumni onto governing bodies. Where opposition is weak or absent, the ruling party becomes its own opponent. The educational environment is being destroyed. If teacher representatives don't align politically, they're harassed,' said Bhattacharya. A brief democratic interlude occurred in early 2020 when four universities – Jadavpur, Presidency, Rabindra Bharati, and IIEST Shibpur – were allowed to hold student union elections after agitations. The results were telling. Left-affiliated alliances swept Jadavpur, with TMCP finishing a distant fourth. Similarly, independent and Left-leaning groups dominated Presidency. These outcomes indicate that the TMCP's influence can significantly diminish in democratic exercises on campuses a fact that likely explains the ruling party's persistent reluctance to restore routine student elections statewide. Translated from the Bengali original by Aparna Bhattacharya. 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The Wire
27-06-2025
- Politics
- The Wire
Kolkata: Law Student Gang-Raped in College, TMC Leader Among Arrested
Kolkata: Protests have erupted after news broke that a law student was allegedly gang-raped at her college in south Kolkata earlier this week. Less than a year ago, a trainee doctor was raped and killed at her place of work and study in the city, the R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital, in an incident that led to statewide protests and nationwide outrage. The complaint alleges that the gang-rape took place on the evening of June 25. Three men – two currently enrolled – have been arrested and remanded to five days of police custody. The main accused, a college staffer Manojit Mishra, is a former student of the South Calcutta Law College and a leader of the ruling Trinamool Congress's student wing. Mishra's social media indicates that he is close to TMC's national general secretary and Diamond Harbour MP Abhishek Banerjee. The college, at the time of reporting, has a giant poster of Banerjee at its gate. Manojit Mishra with Abhishek Banerjee. Photo: By arrangement. Local media has reported that Mishra has been named in 20-30 complaints, some accusing him of sexual harassment, before this. The National Commission for Women wrote to the Kolkata Police chief today on the crime, it is reported. The TMC has posted on its X handle that it "unequivocally" condemns the incident. Kolkata Police have swiftly apprehended all three accused, and the full weight of the law will be brought to bear, ensuring the most severe measures are imposed on those found guilty." It has blamed the Bharatiya Janata Party government at the centre for not implementing the "Aparajita Anti-Rape Bill" that the state government brought, which calls for the death penalty for rape accused. "Our hearts are heavy with sorrow for the profound trauma endured by the victim. The State Administration, under Hon'ble Chief Minister Smt. [Mamata Banerjee], is committed to providing every possible form of support and assistance to the victim during this distressing time. Justice will be served," the TMC wrote. Local leaders of opposition parties Bharatiya Janata Party and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) have demonstrated in front of the local police station at Kasba. Protests are also taking place at the college premises.
