Durgapur rape: Another twist in investigation as police arrest survivor’s friend; rule out gangrape

A 23-year-old classmate of the medical student who alleged she was gangraped near her college in Durgapur, West Bengal, was arrested on Tuesday evening (October 14). This development came shortly after Asansol-Durgapur Police Commissioner Sunil Kumar Choudhary said that the incident did not appear to be a gangrape and confirmed that the classmate remained under suspicion.

The accused, hailing from Malda district, had taken the survivor out for dinner on October 10, the night of the alleged assault. He was initially detained on October 11. Earlier, police had arrested five local villagers, but during his first media briefing on Tuesday, Commissioner Choudhary said that, based on medical evidence and the investigation so far, only one person seemed directly involved. “The investigation and medical reports point to the involvement of a single individual. The roles of others are still being scrutinised. The victim’s friend is not beyond suspicion,” Choudhary told reporters. He also confirmed that police had recreated the crime scene earlier in the day.

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According to Choudhary, the friend accompanied police to the scene along with the other suspects. His clothes from that night were seized for forensic testing. The survivor’s father had also named him as a suspect in his FIR filed on October 11. Police said he will be produced before a local court in Durgapur on Wednesday.

CCTV footage retrieved from the college showed the woman and her friend leaving the campus at 7:54 pm. He returned alone at 8:42 pm, wandered around the premises, and did not alert anyone about her disappearance. He left again at 8:48 pm and re-entered the campus with the woman at 9:29 pm.

The survivor, a native of Jaleshwar in Odisha and a student at IQ City Medical College, alleged that the assailants used her phone to call her friend after the assault. Both had told police they had gone out for dinner. The college informed police around 1 am and filed a formal complaint at 3:28 am. Of the five villagers arrested earlier, two — Sheikh Safiqul (30) and Sheikh Nasiruddin (23) — were remanded in nine days of police custody on Monday. The other three — Apu Bauri (21), Firdous Sheikh (23), and Sheikh Riazuddin (31) — were sent to 10-day custody on Sunday. All work as daily wage labourers in nearby villages.

When asked if the suspects might have discovered the pair in a compromising situation — a possibility emerging during the probe — Choudhary said that angle was still being investigated. Police also recovered the survivor’s mobile phone from one of the suspects. As the accused had allegedly demanded ₹3,000 to return the device, charges of snatching were added to the case, along with Sections 70(1) (gangrape) and 3(5) (crime with common intention) under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.