Still coming to terms with the news of his son’s arrest as a prime accused in Kolkata law college gangrape case, former Trinamool Congress student leader Monojit Mishra’s father’s first words were painful but rooted in reality.

“We stay in a 6 x 8 ft room. We worked so hard and rose from the lower strata of society to make him a lawyer. It is hard to believe that my son has done it,” Monojit Mishra’s father, who is a priest from Kalighat, told The Indian Express.

‘Toughest, maximum punishment’ Two days after his son was arrested, along with three others, for raping and assaulting a 24-year-old female student of a law college in Kolkata, Mishra’s father (name withheld on request), said he will accept the punishment given to his son with his head bowed.

“He is my son. I worked very hard to make him a lawyer. But I must say, if the judiciary, after seeing all the evidence, finds him to be guilty, he should be given the toughest punishment, the maximum punishment. I will accept it with my head bowed,” he told IE.

When asked if he would pursue the case for his son, Mishra’s father simply said, “Frankly, I cannot afford to,” adding, “I will not pursue the case or fight a legal battle. It is a fact that as a father, one’s duty is to do everything to see his son become something. What more can a father do? Then this happens.”

According to Mishra’s father, they have been estranged for the last five years. “We have not had any communication for the last five-six years. He is so busy. I live on my own money. Sometimes clients come enquiring about him, and I tell them this is not his chamber. Since this is his permanent address, his ATM cards and other things come. He collects it,” the report quoted Mishra’s father as saying.

According to the IE report, Mishra is a former member of the ruling TMC’s student wing and a former president of its college unit. Mishra allegedly wielded immense clout on the law college campus. The TMC has claimed that Mishra is no longer associated with the party.

The report quoted Mishra’s father as saying that he had been supporting the TMC since his school days. “Later, when he joined law college, he became a leader there. There was so much factionalism in the TMC in his college. There were cases and counter-cases…which is normal in college politics,” Mishra’s father said.

Kolkata law college gangrape case A female student was allegedly gangraped inside the South Calcutta Law College in Kolkata’s Kasba on June 25. Kolkata Police on Saturday arrested the guard of the South Calcutta Law College, an ANI report said.

Results of the medical examination conducted on the victim corroborated her gangrape allegation, a senior Kolkata Police officer said on Friday.

The victim, in her written complaint to the police, alleged that the security guard did not help her. “The security guard was arrested this morning after we found that his replies were incoherent. His presence at the college has been captured in the CCTV installed in the college,” an officer told PTI.

The guard failed to carry out his duty, the officer said, adding that the police were trying to find out whether he was alone on duty at that time or not.

Earlier, the police had arrested three accused – Monojit Mishra (31), Zaib Ahmed (19), and Pramit Mukhopadhyay (20) – on Friday. According to the report, all three were former students or staff members of the same law college.

The incident at the law college brought back the horrific memories of the rape and murder of an intern inside RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in north Kolkata in August last year.