IIM-C rape case: SIT carrying out probe just on basis of circumstantial evidence

Kolkata, July 16 (IANS) Amid continuing non-cooperation from the victim in the iconic Indian Institute of Management – Calcutta (IIM-C) rape case, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Kolkata Police has been probing the matter just on the basis of circumstantial evidence.

With the victim failing to turn up at the trial court to record her confidential statements in front of a judicial magistrate for two consecutive days, first on Monday and then on Tuesday, the investigating officers are desperately trying to contact her and her family members who have kept themselves incommunicado since July 14, said a senior official of the City Police.

The circumstantial evidence on which the SIT officials are still carrying out the probe includes the footage of the CCTV within the IIM-C campus, the details of the call lists, messages, and chats from the mobile phones of the accused and victim, the specimen of the food and cold drink which were reportedly spiked before raping the victim and the clothes that the accused was wearing.

However, regarding the details of the call lists, messages, and chats from the mobile phones of the accused and the victim, as well as the spiked food and cold drinks, the investigating officials are awaiting their forensic reports. Similarly, the forensic report for the clothes which the accused was wearing at the time of the crime is also awaited.

However, the City Police sources said that carrying forward the investigation just on circumstantial evidence was an extremely difficult proposition, considering that the confidential statement of the victim, her medico-legal examination report, and the clothes that she was reportedly wearing at the time of the crime are still not available to the investigating officials.

Neither the victim turned up for the recording of her confidential statements, nor has she undergone her medico-legal examination.

At the same time, she had not submitted the clothes that she was wearing at the time of the crime to the investigating officials.

The contradictory statements from the victim and her father on the reported incident of rape on July 11 are also creating utter confusion in the matter, as he has been claiming from the beginning that nothing wrong had happened to her daughter.

The victim's father stuck to his statement even as a trial court on July 12 remanded the sole accused in the case, Parmanand Mahaveer Toppannavar a.k.a. Parmanand Jain (26), to police custody till July 19.

--IANS

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