In a surprising turn in the case of gangrape of a private medical college student in West Bengal’s Durgapur, the West Bengal Police on Tuesday (14th October) arrested the 23-year-old friend of the girl with whom she had gone out when the incident took place. Importantly, West Bengal police have also also claimed the case might have involve rape by a single person, and there was no gangrape.
The victim’s friend Wasif Ali, a resident of Malda, was already detained on 11th October, a day following the alleged incident. The police questioned him for several days before arresting him on Tuesday evening.
The alleged incident took place on 10th October evening, when the second year student of IQ City Medical College Hospital was allegerdly dragged into the nearby jungle and gangraped by five men when she was walking with her boyfriend Wasif Ali on the deserted road. Police have already arrested all five accused, identified as Apu Bauri, Sheikh Firdous, Sheikh Riazuddin, Sheikh Nasiruddin and Sheikh Shafiqul. All five are allegedly associated with the Trinamool Congress.
They have been charged under sections 70(1) (gang rape) and 3(5) (crime committed with common intention) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). The victim’s friend Ali was also detained to question why had he fled from the scene when the girl was attacked. And now he has also been arrested.
However, now police are saying that it was possibly not a gangrape, and there is only a single suspect in the case. Cops said that there are inconsistencies in the accounts provided by the survivor, her friend, the arrested suspects, and in medical records, making the case complicated.
At first, the girl said she was dragged by three men and only one of them raped her. But later she said there were five men and they gangraped her.
Moreover, CCTV footage also reportedly does not match with the description of the incident. The footage reportedly shows the survivor and her boyfriend Wasif Ali leaving the campus together at 7:54 pm. Ali later seen returning alone at 8:42 pm, leaving again at 8:48 pm, and coming back with the survivor at 9:29 pm. As per police, the girl was seen returning calmly in the video, with her clothes intact. She also didn’t seek help from security personnel of the campus.
A senior officer told the media, “When a woman is dragged into a jungle and gangraped, there is always some physical evidence. But the footage shows otherwise.”
Police say only one person involved
Asansol-Durgapur Police Commissioner Sunil Kumar Choudhary stated that the arrested friend “is not above suspicion” and added that evidence so far points to the involvement of only one person, not multiple attackers. He said that while the role of others who were previously arrested is still being reviewed, the investigation and medical reports now suggest that no gangrape occurred.
He said that the clothes that the classmate was wearing during the incident on Friday night have been confiscated. DNA tests of all the accused will be conducted.
The police said that the complaint was filed at 1.05 AM in the night of the incident, after which police reached the spot immediately. The next day in the afternoon, the hospital authorities filed a written complaint.
Sunil Kumar Choudhary said, “We have arrested all the five people who were at the spot except the victim and her friend. We have confiscated the clothes they were wearing that day. We went to inspect the spot with the victim’s friend. It has been reconstructed. According to the various samples found so far and according to the victim’s statement, only one accused raped her. The role of the rest is being investigated.”
He said that investigation in the case is going on, and they are waiting for the forensic and medical test reports. The victim’s friend is being questioned repeatedly and his exact role in this crime will be known soon.
According to investigators, the case has been complicated by multiple contradictions in the statements of the survivor, her friend, and the five men who were earlier arrested. There were also differences between the survivor’s initial statement to doctors and her later version given to the police.
The survivor’s father, who lodged a police complaint on Saturday, 11th October, also named her classmate as a suspect. “I am sure that her friend definitely has some kind of involvement in the crime. He accompanied my daughter out of the college. I think this could be pre-planned, or else this could not have happened,” he said.
The family has alleged that the daughter didn’t want to go out but Ali persuaded her to go out for dinner. As per them, when they were surrounded by the attackers, Ali fled from the scene.
The phone of the victim, which was snatched by the attackers, have been recovered by the police.
TMC blames victim
While the case is still be investigated and police have not divulged exactly what happened, the rulling Trinamool Congress has already started accusing the victim of lying. While the police have only said that it might be a single rape and not gangrape, West Bengal Trinamool Congress (TMC) state general secretary Nilanjan Das claimed that the survivor fabricated the gangrape story to protect her friend, Wasif Ali. He said, “The ‘gangrape’ story was made up to save the boyfriend, Wasif Ali, from local robbers.”
Khabar 365 update on #Durgapur case – “gangrape” story was fabricated to save the boyfriend, Wasif Ali, from local robbers. pic.twitter.com/cQFMrdgEaB
— Nilanjan Das (@NilanjanDasAITC) October 14, 2025
He posted Khabar 365 Din which claimed that the victim had gone out to have sex with her boyfriend in the jungle, and made up the gangrape story. The report claims that when some drunk men saw them naked in compromising position in the jungle, they looted them, snatching money and phone. The report claims that the victim filed the ‘false’ gangrape case only to recover the phone without disclosing about the circumstances.
Earlier arrests in the case
Five local villagers, Sheikh Safiqul (30), Sheikh Nasiruddin (23), Apu Bauri (21), Firdous Sheikh (23), and Sheikh Riazuddin (31), were earlier arrested based on phone call records and circumstantial evidence. All are daily wage labourers from nearby villages.
Two of them were remanded in police custody for nine days, while the remaining three were sent to custody for 10 days.
The case has sparked a political storm between West Bengal and Odisha, where the survivor hails from.
Odisha chief minister Mohan Charan Majhi spoke to the survivor’s father and promised full legal and administrative support. “The culprits must face the severest punishment,” Majhi said.
