Kolkata gang-rape: Accused Monojit had consensual sex with survivor, says counsel; state junks claim

Kolkata: The counsel of Monojit Mishra, prime accused in the gangrape of a student of a city-based law college, on Wednesday claimed that his client had "consensual sex" with the victim and that he was "framed" for a crime of which there are "no video evidence" as being claimed in certain quarters.

Advocate Raju Ganguly, who appeared for Mishra in court, maintained that the suspect did not perpetrate any torture on the victim and referred to the presence of "love bites" on his client's body in support of his claim.

"My client has been framed. The two had consensual sex, and there is evidence of that. There are marks of love bites on the left side of Monojit's neck. My client has done nothing wrong," Ganguly said.

Sources at the Alipore court, which heard the remand prayer of Mishra and the two co-accused, Zaib Ahmed and Pramit Mukherjee, on Tuesday, however, told PTI that the defence counsel made no such submissions before the judge.

The court extended the police remand of all three prime accused in the case till July 8 and that of the arrested security guard, Pinaki Bandyopadhyay, till July 4.

"The defence did not even pray for the bail application of the accused. On the contrary, they offered total cooperation with the investigators," the court's chief police prosecutor, Sourin Ghoshal, said.

"The only two submissions the defence counsel made before the judge were a prayer to remain present with his clients during police interrogation and a plea to visit the crime scene in police presence. While the judge rejected the second prayer, I am not exactly sure about what he ruled about the first," he added.

The senior advocate said that while he had brought to the attention of the court that the medico-legal test results corroborated the allegations pressed by the victim during the first day of production of the suspects before the judge, he supplemented his submission on the second day by stating that the circumstantial and electronic evidence gathered by the police also corroborated her complaint.

Ghoshal explained that in accordance with the provisions of the law, the defence does not have an opportunity to make such submissions at the current stage of the judicial process.

"Once the police close the investigation and file a chargesheet, it will be on us to prove the charges brought against the accused in court. At the close of the trial, the accused can say whatever they want when the court calls for a defence witness," he said.

Ganguly, meanwhile, also claimed that the victim was "very fond" of his client and that she was in an inebriated state on the evening of June 25 when the alleged incident took place inside South Calcutta Law College.

"The girl had herself fixed drinks for Monojit and the others present there. They all got drunk. She was equally intoxicated. After that my client and the girl had sex," he said.

It deserves mention that Mishra, himself a criminal lawyer at the Alipore police court, has been working as Ganguly's junior since 2021.

Ganguly also denied the possibility that there was video evidence of the alleged torture of the victim contrary to media reports that video footage of the alleged assault were recovered from the phones of two of the accused.

The only mobile clip found was of the girl making drinks, he claimed.

"I can take full responsibility of the fact that there is no such video of any torture of the victim. There was no such incident," Ganguly said.

Ghoshal rebutted the claim, stating, "let the defence make these submissions in court instead of making wild statements to the media outside the courtroom. We will respond accordingly."