During questioning by police, the three accused individuals detained in the IIT-BHU sexual assault case allegedly admitted to being involved in three additional instances of molestation on the Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, campus, as reported by Indian Express.
The accused also admitted that they would supposedly frequent the location on a regular basis in search of "opportunities." Officers involved in the investigation told The Indian Express that an examination of their call detail records supported this, frequently displaying their location on campus between 11 p.m. and 1 a.m.
Incident happened on November 1
In connection with the incident, which happened on the evening of November 1, Varanasi police on Saturday arrested Kunal Pandey (28), Saksham Patel (20), and Abhishek Chauhan (22). According to the police, the accused were not IIT-BHU students.
The FIR claims that three men waylaid, stripped, and sexually assaulted a 22-year-old student as she left her hostel to meet a friend. The three accused, who were riding motorcycles, allegedly recorded the assault, according to the complainant.
The three men were accused of sexually abusing a student on the campus of Indian Institute of Technology, also known as Banaras Hindu University, and were charged with gang rape.
To recover images, videos, and texts, the forensic science lab has been tasked with retrieving the phones of the three men.
As per the survivor's account, on November 1, she went for a walk outside her hostel with a friend from the same institute. The accused approached them while riding a motorcycle close to the campus near Karmanbir Baba temple. After being pulled behind some bushes and violently separated from her friend, the survivor was attacked.
Another student was assaulted two days prior
Another student had experienced a similar assault two days prior to the incident and had reported it to the Proctor's office. However, according to police, they had only heard from the woman who was the target of the November 1 incident.
The institute's dean told Indian Express that the Proctor's office had received a complaint about the events of October 30 and that appropriate action was being taken.
Accused are allegedly connected to BJP
The arrests, which took place two months after the institute saw protests, have also sparked a political controversy. The ruling party has denied any connection to the accused, which the opposition claims is why they are being protected.
Locals in their neighborhood claimed that the men would engage in "dadagiri" there and would escape due to their BJP connections. Pandey and Patel both list the BJP as their affiliation on their Facebook profiles: the former as the group's IT cell coordinator in Varanasi (Mahanagar) and the latter as co-coordinator.
