CID INVESTIGATION

Ranaghat, March 18: The CBI will have to start from scratch if it takes over the probe into the alleged rape of an elderly nun at a Nadia school as the CID investigation is yet to shed light on even the basic details.

The CID has not managed to find out the exact time when the gang entered the Convent of Jesus and Mary High School compound on March 14, how many youths were involved in the crime and what was the exit route, whether by rail or by road.

CCTV footage show the time when the images of the youths were captured but no one knows when they entered and left the sprawling school compound.

Police sources admitted they only had a vague idea of the gang leaving the school premises around 5.10am but there was still no evidence on how the suspects left Ranaghat.

The first police team reached the school at 6.05am on Saturday, almost 40 minutes after a call was made to Gangnapur police station, 12km away.

According to Jayanta Raj, the night guard and one of the eye-witnesses, the gang left the school by 5.10am and it took some time before the call could be made to the police.

CID chief Rajeev Kumar reached the school from Calcutta around 1.40pm on Saturday. By then, around seven hours had been lost. Kumar was not available for comment.

"It takes around 40 minutes by train to reach the India-Bangladesh border from Ranaghat," said Rony Gomes, a local resident. "Within three to three-and-a-half hours, you can reach Murshidabad via NH34."

Nadia police superintendent Arnab Ghosh refused to speak on the probe, including why sniffer dogs were deployed only the day after the crime.

"The entire police force was busy controlling mobs and battling blockades on day one," said an officer of Ranaghat police station.

Sources said the school was barely 38km from the nearest India-Bangladesh border at Gede and no help had been sought from the Border Security Force (BSF). This, despite chief minister Mamata Banerjee claiming that efforts were on to find out if the gang had slipped out of the state.

"We were only asked to provide some sniffer dogs, which we did," a senior officer at the headquarters of the BSF (south Bengal) said.

"We have not received any intimation from the state police till date, seeking help on suspected cross-border movements of youths or any gang," he added.

Central intelligence sources said they had not received any official or unofficial request to share information with state agencies. Insiders said though ground-level officers had started gathering preliminary information on the incident in view of the possible ramifications, they later withdrew as law and order was a state subject.

"Several key facts are yet to be ascertained in the case. This is quite surprising," a senior official of the state home department said.

"It is still not clear whether the gang had faced any resistance while looking for the keys to the safe where cash was kept or if they were handed over the keys immediately after they asked for them. The lack of progress in the case was one of the reasons why a CBI probe has been sought," he added.

Sources in the state probe team said they had started off on a high, believing that CCTV footage of the suspects would lead to a quick breakthrough. But gradually, officers realised that releasing the pictures of the suspects might have alerted the gang members.

"The school is fitted with 11 cameras but it struck us late that there is no picture of the night guard, Jayanta Raj. We still don't know how that is possible," a CID officer said.

"It is also not clear why no one spotted a group of youths leaving the school compound when there was a police team on duty barely 50 meters from the school and morning-walkers were already out," he added.

The police, though, have made some random detentions.