Kolkata law college rape case: Questions surface why accused not named in FIR

Kolkata, June 29 (IANS) Questions have started surfacing on why just "initials" of the three persons accused of raping a law college student in Kolkata were mentioned in the FIR instead of full names.

The names of the three accused are Monojit Mishra, Jaib Ahmed, and Pramit Mukhopadhyay, all linked to the Trinamool Congress' student wing, Trinamool Chhatra Parishad (TMCP).

However, in the FIR registered in the case, the three accused persons were referred to as "M", "J" and "P".

While the leaders of the opposition parties claim that this mention of just the initials of the three accused in the FIR was done deliberately by the cops to conceal the fact that the accused persons were linked to TMCP, even legal brains feel that in this case, there was no reason for the police to mention just the initials instead of the names.

Senior counsel with the Calcutta High Court, Firdous Samim, explained the legal formalities in such cases.

"If the victim had named the three accused persons in her statement, there was no reason for the police to mention just the initials instead of the full names. I feel there was no reason that the victim would not have mentioned the names since she knew the accused persons," Samim said.

"Secondly, in this case, it was not difficult for the police to identify the accused persons during the preliminary inquiry before registering the FIR. In that event, too, there was no reason for the police to just mention the initials. So ethically, it was wrong on the part of the cops to just mention the initials in the FIR," Samim explained.

CPI(M) leader Shatarup Ghosh said that the police's mention of just the initials was deliberate.

"The police should have mentioned the full names of the accused persons instead of just the initials along with other relevant details in the FIR," said Ghosh.

BJP leader and the party councillor in Kolkata Municipal Corporation, Sajal Ghosh, said that from the mention of just the initials of the accused persons, it was clear that this was done to hide the political links of the accused persons.

Meanwhile, on Sunday morning, a National Commission for Women (NCW) delegation led by its member Archana Majumdar reached the law college and surveyed the scene of the crime.

She is also slated to visit the victim's house later in the day.

Meanwhile, BJP's state president in West Bengal and Union Minister of State, Sukanta Majumdar, arrested on Saturday for protesting against the crime, was released from the Kolkata Police headquarters on Sunday morning.

"We were made to wait on a bench throughout the night at the city police headquarters. The cops insisted that we sign the bail bond. But we refused and instead asked them to produce us at the court. This morning, they asked us to leave the city headquarters without signing the bail bond," Sukanta Majumdar said.

--IANS

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