KOLKATA: The alleged gang rape of a student at a law college in south Kolkata has sparked outrage, with the Opposition BJP pointing out main accused Manojit Mishra’s links with the Trinamool Congress, though the West Bengal ruling party has denied it calling for tough action against the culprits.
On his Facebook profile, Mishra, a former student of the law college and a practicing lawyer in Alipore court, has claimed he is the south Kolkata organisational secretary of Trinamool Congress Chhatra Parishad (TMCP), the students’ wing of the TMC. His social media profile has pictures of him in programmes of the TMC. There are also his pictures with the leaders of the ruling party.
West Bengal minister and Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim denied Mishra’s associations with the TMC. “The accused were never associated with Trinamool. There is no connection in any way. I cannot say whether they are supporters or not. There is no connection with Trinamool Congress.
Those who work for Trinamool with ideological commitment can never do anything wrong,” Hakim said. Meanwhile, BJP leader and Leader of Opposition in Assembly Suvendu Adhikari on his social media handle has posted an old picture of Mishra standing with TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee.
“If I hadn’t posted the image, it wouldn’t have come out. The party is shielding him. The empire of crime was not established just like that. It has flourished and grown up in the presence of various miscreants,” Adhikari said on X.
Though the TMC is trying to distance itself from Mishra, students of the college know him as a close associate of the ruling party. Mishra was also president of the students’ union of South Calcutta Law College. Some students, requesting not to be named, said the former president of the TMC unit used to run a racket in the college.
Mishra was also appointed as a temporary employee of the college with the permission of the college’s governing body president Ashok Kumar Deb, a TMC MLA. College vice principal Nayna Chatterjee said, “He (Mishra) is a temporary staff of the college. He is an alumnus of this college. The governing body gave the appointment.”
Manojit Mishra was president of students’ union
Though the TMC is trying to distance itself from Mishra, students of the college know him as a close associate of the ruling party. Mishra was also president of the students’ union of South Calcutta Law College. Some students say the ex-TMC chief unit used to run a racket.
