Durgapur: The Sub-Divisional Judicial Magistrate (SDJM) of Durgapur, on Wednesday, remanded Wasef Ali, the friend of the student from Odisha, who was gang-raped near a private medical college in West Bengal’s Durgapur on Friday evening, to seven days police custody.

This happened after the police told the court that they found Ali’s involvement in the crime. A resident of Kaliachak in the Malda district of West Bengal, he was a batchmate of the 23-year-old survivor, a second year MBBS student of the college.

The survivor, from Jaleswar in Odisha, was gang-raped when she was out for dinner with Ali. She had recorded her statement before a magistrate earlier.

Five others have been arrested in this connection. They are also in police custody and are undergoing sustained questioning.

“The survivor’s male friend is also under our scrutiny. We are still questioning him as many reports are yet to be received. We are still awaiting the FSL and medico-legal reports,” Sunil Kumar Chowdhury, commissioner of police, Asansol-Durgapur Police Commissionerate had said on Tuesday.

The other accused – Sk Safiqul, Sk Nasiruddin, Apu Bauri (21), Firdous Sk (23), and Sk Riazuddin (32), as well as Ali had earlier been taken to the Paranaganj Kali Bari cremation ground for reconstruction of the crime as part of the ongoing probe.

It has been revealed that one of the accused is a former security guard of the college while another works at a hospital. Another one is employed on a temporary basis with the local civic body.