KOLKATA: Allowing a girl student to step out of a campus “located in a forested area” past midnight is “shocking”, Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee said Sunday while taking the authorities of a private medical college in Durgapur to task for the circumstances leading to her alleged gang rape late Friday.“How did they (the girl and a male friend) come out of the campus at 12.30 am? Wasn’t it the responsibility of the college? I don’t know why they were allowed to leave at that hour,” she said in her first reaction to the crime involving the second-year MBBS student from Odisha.The CM, who had to contend with a public uproar and a prolonged doctors’ agitation after Aug 2024 rape-murder of a medical resident studying for her PG at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, said it isn’t possible for cops to be present everywhere at all times of the day. She urged students from other states to be “careful and not venture out of campuses in forested areas late at night” since they might be unfamiliar with the local terrain.Mamata’s remarks coincided with the arrest of three suspects in Durgapur case. The survivor’s male friend is being detained for further interrogation. “No one (linked with the crime) will be spared,” the CM said, adding, “Cops are searching for everyone involved. All the guilty will be punished strictly.” The CM directed private institutes to accept responsibility for safety of their students, especially women. “They should not be allowed to get out (at night). They have to be cautious themselves, too, more so if the campus is in an area like this (Durgapur’s outskirts).”She iterated that Bengal had a “zero-tolerance policy” on crimes targeting women, mentioning in the same breath some recent such cases in BJP-governed states. Mamata said in Bengal, police and other agencies had submitted charge sheets against arrested suspects in sexual assault cases within two months. “Lower courts have even handed capital punishment in some of these cases. But we have seen so many such cases in Manipur, UP, Odisha and Bihar dragging on.“
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