IIM-Calcutta rape case: Three contradictions baffle investigators

Kolkata Police's SIT is probing key contradictions in the alleged rape case at IIM Calcutta, including mismatched entry timings, the victim’s professional claims, and conflicting statements from the victim and her father, as the accused remains in custody till July 19

Kolkata: The Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Kolkata Police probing the case of rape of a woman within the campus of the iconic Indian Institute of Management–Calcutta (IIM-C) at Joka in southern outskirts of Kolkata are trying to resolve the confusion arising over three issues that the probing sleuths have confronted so far.

The first confusion was over contradictory statements as regards to campus entry and exit timings of the victim.

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Insiders said that the entry and exit timings as stated by the victim did not match the statements of a couple of staff members of the institute, who reportedly saw her coming by an app-cab into the campus along with the sole accused and then going out of the campus by another app-cab. At the same time, the mention of the app-cabs was not there in the statement given by the victim to the police.

The second confusion is as regards the claims by the victim that she was a professional psychological counsellor. She also claimed that she reached the campus of IIM-C on Friday in that capacity after being called by the sole accused in the case, Parmanand Mahaveer Toppannavar a.k.a Parmanand Jain (26), a second-year student of IIM-C.

Insiders said the victim had not submitted any documentary evidence of her being a professional psychological counsellor. The third and most important confusion, insiders said, was that the investigating cops are trying to resolve is the contradictory statements given by the victim and her father.

On the one hand, the victim, in her statement, claimed that the accused called her to the boys’ hostel within the campus on Friday evening for counselling, and offered her pizza and cold drinks laced with sedatives. The victim claimed that after consuming the pizza, she fell unconscious. Thereafter, as per her statement to the police, the accused Parmanand raped her in the hostel while she was unconscious.

On the contrary, the victim’s father had told media persons that nothing of that sort happened with her daughter, and she became unconscious as she tumbled while alighting from a vehicle. The victim’s father stuck to his statement even as a trial court on Saturday afternoon remanded the accused to police custody till July 19.