KOLKATA: The father of Jadavpur University student Anamika Mondal, who drowned in a campus pond on Thursday, said on Sunday he would lodge a murder complaint. He said her friends might have forced her to drink alcohol and pushed her into the water knowing well she could not swim.
Soon after Arnab Mondal voiced his allegation, four JU students, who were reportedly with Anamika during her last hours, were asked to appear for questioning at Jadavpur police station.
"We haven't received any formal complaint yet. But the probe is proceeding as per the unnatural death case initiated by us," said deputy commissioner (south and south suburban) Bidisha Kalita.
"My daughter never touched liquor. If the probe proves she was drunk, her friends must have forced her to drink and then pushed her into the pond despite knowing that she could not swim. Police should question everyone. Once they are grilled, the truth will come out," Mondal, who works at a private firm in Salt Lake, told TOI after performing his daughter's shraddh at their Nimta home.
"I cannot accept that my daughter died by drowning. I will immediately lodge a murder complaint. I was waiting for the shraddh to be over."
Cops inspect campus water body, measure depthMother Meenakshi, too, said her daughter was a victim of conspiracy. A preliminary autopsy report confirmed that Anamika, who was a third-year English honours student, died by drowning. There were no external or internal injuries except for some minor scratches on her elbows, which police said might have occurred during the fall into the pond.
A viscera test is being conducted to determine whether she consumed alcohol or any other intoxicating substance. A senior officer said witnesses indicated Anamika might have been intoxicated but it could only be confirmed after the test results came.
DCP Kalita, accompanied by Jadavpur police station officers and the surgeon who performed the autopsy, inspected the campus on Sunday. The officers measured the depth of the water body, which is next to the students union room, and the distance between it and the venue of the musical event on the campus that Anamika had attended before she died.
Kalita said they had obtained CCTV footage that would help them determine the exact time, manner and cause of death. Police have seized Anamika’s mobile, which was handed over to her family by a professor after her death.
Students present at the scene on Thursday night told reporters that they were alerted by shrieks of a girl who spotted two hands protruding out of the water. Security personnel and students pulled an unresponsive Anamika out of the pond and rushed her to KPC Medical College and Hospital, where she was declared dead at 10.20 pm.
Cops said she last spoke to her mother at 9.04 pm, when she told her that she would leave for home by 9.30 pm.
JU has called an administrative meeting on Monday to address the situation. Hours after the death, JU recirculated a notice restricting entry of outsiders into the campus from 7 pm to 7 am. The notice stresses that consuming narcotics and alcohol is banned on campus and violators will be punished.