‘No Gang-Rape’: Bengal Police Arrest Classmate of Durgapur Medical Student

A 23-year-old classmate of the Durgapur medical student who alleged gang-rape near her college campus on October 10 was arrested on Tuesday evening, shortly after Asansol-Durgapur police commissioner Sunil Kumar Choudhary ruled out gang-rape and confirmed that the student was not above suspicion.

The arrested man, a resident of Malda district, had taken the survivor out for dinner on the night of the incident. He was detained on October 11, while five villagers had been arrested earlier. However, Commissioner Choudhary, in his first press briefing on the case, said that investigation and medical reports pointed to the involvement of only one person.

“The investigation and medical findings so far indicate the involvement of one person. The roles of others are being reviewed. The victim’s friend is not above suspicion,” Choudhary said after police reconstructed the crime scene.

The police confirmed that the classmate’s clothes from the night of the incident had been seized for forensic testing. The survivor’s statement was also recorded before a magistrate on Tuesday afternoon. Her father had named the classmate as a suspect in his initial police complaint. The accused will be produced before a Durgapur court on Wednesday.

Security footage from the medical college shows the survivor and her friend leaving the campus at 7:54 p.m. The male student returned alone at 8:42 p.m., lingered near the premises, and later returned with the survivor at 9:29 p.m. Police said he failed to report the incident immediately.

The woman, a resident of Jaleshwar in Odisha, is admitted to Durgapur’s IQ City Medical College Hospital, where she studies. Her medical tests were conducted at the same facility.

Police sources said earlier arrests were made based on phone records and circumstantial evidence. Two suspects were remanded to nine days of police custody on Monday, and three others for ten days on Sunday. All are local residents employed as daily wage labourers.

Investigators told HT that inconsistencies were found in the survivor’s accounts. In her initial statement to doctors, she mentioned three people and alleged that only one assaulted her, but later told police that five men dragged her into the forest and gang-raped her. The available evidence, police said, does not support the gang-rape claim.

Police have also added charges of snatching after the survivor alleged her attackers took her phone and demanded ₹3,000 for its return. The phone was later recovered.

Meanwhile, the survivor’s father accused the police of inaction until Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi intervened. Commissioner Choudhary denied the charge, saying the father was offered personal security but declined, choosing to stay with a relative. Police have stationed personnel at the hospital for the survivor’s protection.

As protests led by the BJP continued in Durgapur, several leaders from Odisha tried to visit the hospital but were stopped after the Calcutta High Court banned the entry of outsiders. Acting on a hospital petition, Justice Shampa Dutta Paul ruled that no one other than investigating officers may enter without permission, citing disruption to classes and patient movement.