WEBDESK: Kolkata law student rape case: Another shocking gang rape case has appeared in India, the case of a law student in Kolkata, just months after the brutal RG Kar case.
The case has ignited another political war of words between the ruling Trinamool Congress and the opposition BJP.
Three men have been arrested in connection with the attack, which reportedly took place late on Wednesday evening at a law college in Kolkata’s Kasba area.
One of them, Manojit Mishra, is a 31-year-old former student of South Calcutta Law College and currently practising as a lawyer. The other two accused, Zaib Ahmed and Pramit Mukhopadhyay, are said to be present students of the same institution, as per ANI.
Mishra has been identified as the main accused. Photographs circulating on social media, shared by BJP leaders, show him with senior figures from the Trinamool Congress, including Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s nephew and party leader Abhishek Banerjee.
Other images show him with state minister Chandrima Bhattacharya and councillor Kajari Banerjee, the CM’s sister-in-law.
The arrested men have been sent to police custody for four days.
Initial reports suggest the crime took place between 7:30 pm and 8:50 pm in a room on the college campus.
The incident has sparked widespread anger, not just over the crime but also over what the BJP describes as the “collapse of law and order” in Bengal.
Rape cases in India
This case follows the RG Kar rape and murder in which a young woman was found dead in a seminar room inside a medical college.
She had been raped, tortured, and strangled.
The accused, a civic volunteer, was sentenced to life imprisonment, a verdict that many felt did not match the horror of the crime.
With the recent instances of sexual assault against foreign visitors in India, there has been a great uproar and increased concern over the growing poor position in respect to the safety of women in the country.
The most recent case occurred on June 22 in Udaipur, Rajasthan, where a French tourist was allegedly raped by a man working for a private firm, according to a report by Indian media.
The incident has been sharply condemned by opposition parties, who have called it a global embarrassment.
Ashok Gehlot warned that even the United States has issued safety warnings for female travellers visiting India, a sign, he said, of the growing international concern.
This follows another disturbing case from March, when an Israeli tourist and her host were reportedly gang-raped in Hampi, Karnataka, a story first reported by the BBC.
They are not some random things.
Since 2018, India has reported rape cases to be between 30,000 and 34,000 annually up to the year 2025. This is equivalent to an estimated rape in every 15 minutes based on the numbers mentioned by Al Jazeera.
Reflecting the global concern, the US State Department updated its travel advisory for India on 16 June 2025, maintaining a “Level 2: Exercise Increased Caution” due to risks of crime and terrorism.
It specifically warned that “rape is one of the fastest growing crimes in India” and noted that sexual assaults often occur at tourist destinations.
Women have been advised not to travel alone. Canada has also issued a similar level-two advisory.
Figures from the National Crime Records Bureau tell a troubling story. In 2014, there were 337,922 cases registered under crimes against women. By 2022, that number had risen to 445,256, a jump of over 100,000 cases in just eight years.
Despite official assurances, many feel that India’s reputation is being damaged on the global stage, and that women, both local and foreign, remain deeply vulnerable in public spaces.
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