A second-year MBA student at the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (IIM-C), arrested last week in connection with an alleged rape on campus, was granted bail by a West Bengal court on Saturday.
The Alipore Court decision came after the complainant, also associated with the institute, reportedly became unreachable and has not participated in the investigation. The court cited her lack of cooperation as a key factor while approving the accused’s release on a ₹50,000 bail bond, according to ANI.
The accused had previously been held in police custody for seven days following his arrest, which was based on a First Information Report (FIR) filed at Haridevpur Police Station. The FIR alleged that the woman was raped inside the boys’ hostel on July 11.
Now, with the complainant not responding to police outreach and reportedly refusing to undergo a medico-legal examination, investigators have turned to CCTV evidence for clarity.
“We have sought the CCTV footage of July 11 covering the entire IIM-Calcutta campus,” said an officer familiar with the case. “We need to confirm where she went during her time there.”
The police said the complainant was on campus for about two and a half hours. Her description of that period does not entirely match what the police have been able to verify, prompting questions.
“There are certain discrepancies in her claims about the duration of her stay at IIM-Calcutta,” said an officer from Haridevpur Police Station. “We’re checking what time she entered, which places she visited, and when she left.”
In response to the case, a nine-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) has been formed. It’s being led by an assistant commissioner from the South West Division.
Investigators are being met with a wall of silence. IIM-Calcutta has yet to make any public statement about the allegations, and the team is still waiting for the green light to question three of its students.
But the most critical silence is from the complainant herself, whom police say they have been unable to locate. Without her testimony, authorities admit the investigation has all but hit a dead end.
There’s a sense of uncertainty around how this will proceed. With both privacy concerns and legal standards in play, the case has become more complex than initially expected.
