“He is my son. I worked very hard to make him a lawyer. But I must say, if the judiciary, after seeing all the evidence, finds him to be guilty, he should be given the toughest punishment, the maximum punishment. I will accept it with my head bowed,” he added.

Mishra, 31, the prime accused in the rape case, is among the four accused arrested. A former member of the ruling Trinamool Congress’s (TMC’s) student wing and a former president of its college unit, he allegedly wielded immense clout on the law college campus. The TMC has claimed that Mishra is no longer associated with the party.

Asked if he would pursue the case for his son, Mishra’s father said, “I will not pursue the case or fight a legal battle. Frankly, I cannot afford it. It is a fact that as a father, one’s duty is to do everything to see his son become something. What more can a father do? Then this happens.”

Mishra’s father said he and his son have been estranged for the last five years. “We have not had any communication for the last five-six years. He is so busy. I live on my own money. Sometimes clients come enquiring about him, and I tell them this is not his chamber. Since this is his permanent address, his ATM cards and other things come. He collects it,” Mishra’s father said.

According to him, since school, Mishra had supported the TMC. “Later, when he joined law college, he became a leader there. There was so much factionalism in the TMC in his college. There were cases and counter-cases…which is normal in college politics,” he added.

Mishra’s father said he loved “being called ‘Dada Dada’ in college”, liked it when students ran behind him, enjoyed felicitations, etc. “I always wanted him to be a big lawyer. Now see what happened. Now, wherever I go, I fear people will point fingers at me,” he said.