Prime accused in the Kolkata law college gangrape case, Monojit Mishra, an alumnus of the same law college, reportedly wielded huge influence on the campus even after he graduated.

According to a PTI report, Monojit led the college unit of the Trinamool College Chhatra Parishad, student wing of the ruling TMC in West Bengal, since 2017. The TMC, however, has distanced itself from Monojit, saying that he has no links with the party, and calling for strictest punishment for him in the gangrape case.

Monojit Mishra’s life on campus According to an NDTV report, Monojit, also called “Mango” by students in the law college, wielded massive clout on campus, to the extent that even teachers and office staff feared him.

Monojit joined the Kolkata law college as an aspiring lawyer in 2007 and would have finished the course in 2012. During his time as a student there, he became involved in campus politics and dropped out of college before finishing his course after the TMC came to power in Bengal in 2011. The NDTV report said that Monojit took readmission in 2017 and graduated in 2022.

Monojit was reportedly involved in a vandalism incident at the college’s principal office in 2017. He officially did not hold a post in the college’s TMC unit as it was dissolved by the party. But, unofficially, Monojit was still the “student neta” as the college did not hold any student body polls since 2017, the report added.

Reportedly, multiple complaints of harassment and molestation had been registered against him in the past, but no action was taken. Although Mishra was no longer a student, he started working on the campus on a temporary basis in 2023.

Vice-principal Nayna Chatterji said that the college’s governing body recruited him about 45 days ago on a contractual basis. “TMC legislator Ashok Kumar Deb is the president of the governing body,” she said. Deb denied involvement in his recommendation, Hindustan Times reported.

‘Pervert’ Monojit was feared on campus A Times of India report quoted students saying that Monojit often used pick-up lines for women on campus. Reportedly, he used his “tui amay biye korbi?” (Will you marry me?)” when he first approached 24-year-old survivor of the campus rape case.

He would click pictures of female students, morph them, and circulate them on WhatsApp groups, the report said. These female students were gossiped about, made fun of, and body shamed by Monojit and his friends.

Not just this, Monojit was feared so much in college that some students stopped attending classes because they were so “scared of him”, the TOI report said.

In the aftermath of the RG Kar medical college and hospital rape and murder case of a student doctor, nationwide protests had broken out last year, including the campus where Monojit was a “neta”. Monojit reportedly confronted some students who took part in the protests and questioned them.

The report also said that Monojit allegedly threatened and also beat up some of them. According to students, he would openly say that nothing would happen to him as he had access to top politicians.

‘History-sheeter’ Monojit Mishra’s murky past Monojit’s personal life was no different than his “pervert” version on the law college campus. He has multiple cases registered against him, out of which he was out on bail for four of them.

In 2019, he had allegedly ripped off the dress of a woman in South Calcutta Law College. The same year, he was accused of stealing music system, perfume, and spectacles from a friend’s home in December. In 2022, a complaint was filed against him for molesting a woman in Swinhoe Lane. He was also accused of assaulting a man and was later arrested in April 2017. Monojit is also accused of beating up a college guard and damaging college property in a May 2024 case.

According to a report published in The Telegraph, multiple FIRs have been filed against Monojit at Kalighat, Kasba, Alipore, Haridevpur, and Tollygunge police stations.

Disowned by father, known as a ‘troublemaker’ Monojit’s father is a temple priest in Kalighat, and his mother suffers from neurological issues, the NDTV report said. His father reportedly said that he had distanced himself from Monojit years ago due to his political activities and frequent fights.

Neighbours claim Monojit (31), whose nickname is Papai, was a troublemaker who often got into drunken brawls, the NDTV report added.

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, Monojit’s father (name withheld on request), said he will accept the punishment given to his son with his head bowed.

“We stay in a 6×8 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’s father told The Indian Express.

According to his 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,” the report quoted Monojit’s father as saying.

Kolkata law college gangrape case A female student was allegedly gangraped inside the South Calcutta Law College in Kolkata’s Kasba on June 25. Four people, including Monojit Mishra who is the prime accused, and the college’s security guard, have been arrested in connection with the case so far.

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

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.