Kasba rape case: Police recreate crime scene, conduct 3D mapping

Kolkata: Police on Friday recreated the crime scene in connection with the investigation of the Kasba law college rape case and also conducted a 3D mapping.

The four accused persons were taken to the college, where the entire crime scene was reconstructed, which took nearly five hours.

According to sources, a team of police personnel, including a few senior official, took the terminated contractual staff of the college Monojit Mishra alias Mango who is also an alumnus of the college along with the rusticated students Pramit Mukherjee, Zaib Ahmed and the security guard Pinaki Banerjee to the institute at Kasba at around 3:30 am to reconstruct the crime scene.

The places where the reconstruction was done include the union room, a washroom and the guard room.

After the reconstruction, a 3D mapping of the entire area was conducted. The Kolkata Police had first used this 3D mapping system during the investigation of a hit-and-run case in Shakespeare Sarani.

In this system, a 3D laser scanner is positioned at a particular location, where it scans the surroundings in 360 degrees, capturing photographs that are then used to create a digital, three-dimensional representation of the real-world environment. The process transforms 2D images and measurements into a 3D model that can be used for visualisation, analysis and various applications.

Later, the 3D image is used to measure the area and verify whether the claims made by those who gave statements are accurate.

Earlier, police had conducted a reconstruction based on the victim’s account.

Sources said her statement and the reconstruction she participated in will be cross-verified with the results of Friday’s reconstruction.

Police are also likely to match CCTV footage with the 3D mapping to strengthen the case.

Following the reconstruction, police left the college premises with the arrested persons around 8 am.

Meanwhile, it was learnt that the victim, a first-year law student, is unwilling to return to her college due to safety concerns, a close friend of the survivor told the West Bengal Women’s Commission, panel chairperson Leena Gangopadhyay.

The Commission, which met the survivor and her friend along with a counsellor, has recommended necessary steps to the state government to ensure she receives psychological support and is able to continue her studies in a secure and supportive environment.

In another development, the authorities of the law college in South Calcutta, which has been closed since June 29 after an alleged gang rape of a student on the campus, told the Alipore Court on Friday that it was keen on reopening of the institute. Reportedly, the lawyer representing the college said that the authorities have received an e-mail from the police stating that they do not have any objection to the reopening of the college for academic purposes.

The Alipore court had on July 1 extended the police custody of the three accused in the alleged gang rape of a first-year student at the law college in Kolkata’s Kasba area till July 8.