IIM-Calcutta rape case: Confusion galore over contradictory claim of victim's father

Kolkata, July 12 (IANS) Serious confusion has surfaced over the alleged rape of a victim in the Indian Institute of Management- Calcutta (IIM-C) in the boy’s hostel as the victim’s father said on Saturday that “nothing happened” to her daughter and no “one did anything wrong” with her.

Earlier today, a lower court in Kolkata, on Saturday afternoon, remanded Premanand Mahaveer Toppannavar a.k.a. Parmanand Jain (26), the sole accused in the case, to police custody till July 19.

His statement is totally in contradiction to what the victim reported in the official complaint that she registered with the local Haridevpur Police Station on Friday night after the alleged incident of sexual assault on her.

She claimed in the police statement that she went to the boys’ hostel within the IIM-C campus, being called by the accused for some counselling purposes. There she was offered pizza and cold drinks, on consumption of which she became unconscious. As per her complaint, she was raped while she was in that boy’s hostel.

However, her father had claimed that her daughter called him at 9.34 p.m. on Friday, and informed him that she had fallen sick after she tumbled while alighting from a vehicle. “That is why she became unconscious. She could not recollect the exact place where she became unconscious. As regards the police complaint, I feel that she was under some sort of pressure to write that,” he said.

Although the victim’s father did not clarify whom he suspects to have put pressure on her daughter to write that police statement, he denied her daughter having any acquaintance with the accused.

Meanwhile, the counsel of the accused told the media persons that his client was introduced to the victim through social media. “The victim, who is reportedly a professional psychological counsellor, went to the Lake View Boys Hostel within the IIM-C campus for some counselling purposes. Considering the future of my client, I request everyone not to disclose his identity,” the counsel of the accused said.

The public prosecutor said that the investigating officials are currently examining the mobile phone of the accused that has been seized.

--IANS

src/dan