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‘How was she out at 12:30 am?’ Mamata's shocker on Durgapur medical college gang rape case
Durgapur medical college gang rape case: Statements by woman's parents suggest the incident occurred before 10 pm on Friday.
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday asked private colleges in the state to not allow women to step out in the late hours, asking how the survivor of the alleged Durgapur medical college gang rape case “was outside the campus at 12:30 am”, the time the incident is said to have taken place.
While the statements by the woman's parents suggest the incident occurred before 10 pm on Friday, Mamata Banerjee, addressing a press briefing on Sunday, asked how she came out of the private college after midnight. After a row erupted over her remarks, the chief minister later in the day accused the media of distorting her words.
A medical college student who hails from Odisha's Jaleswar was allegedly raped by some men outside the campus of the private medical college in Durgapur. The incident took place on Friday night when the second-year student went out with one of her friends for dinner, police said.
“She was studying in a private medical college... all the private medical are whose responsibility? how they came out in the night at 12:30?... it happened, so far I know, in the forest area... investigation is on,” Mamata Banerjee said on Sunday.
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Mamata Banerjee said while she is shocked to see the incident, private medical colleges need to take care of their students, “especially the girl child” who should “not be allowed to come out” at night.
“... they have to protect themselves also,” she added.
Also Read | After 'out at 12:30 am' shocker on rape case, Mamata says 'words distorted'
The parents, who travelled to Durgapur after being informed by her classmates late in the night on Friday, have stated that they were told about the incident at 9:30 pm. The also reportedly named the student with whom their daughter had gone out - and some of his associates — in the police complaint, though they couldn’t identify the “associates.”
“We received a call from her classmates around 9.30 pm. Her classmates informed us that she was raped and that we should immediately come to Durgapur. We reached the campus on Saturday morning. She is not well and is admitted in the hospital. The miscreants demanded money to return her mobile,” an earlier HT report quoted the father.
The woman's mother alleged that she went out to have food on her friend’s request outside the campus and three people started following them, after which her friend abandoned her and fled.
"My daughter also started running but couldn’t trace her friend. When the three men found my daughter alone, they took her to a nearby forest area. Two more people joined them. One of them committed the crime and snatched her mobile. She was threatened that she would be killed if she dared to shout,” the report quoted the woman’s mother.
