If you are in danger right now, call your local emergency number. Escrow is not an emergency service.
Is it too late to report in Kolkata?
Probably not.
What we have read for Kolkata says a report is accepted long after the day it happened. The full wording is below, with the source. Years late is still a report.
Checked against official sources on 29 August 2026.
the deadline in Kolkata, quoted in full
There is no statute of limitations for rape under Indian law. You can report and file a case regardless of how much time has passed.
We quote this rather than shorten it. A shortened deadline is a wrong deadline, and this is the sentence a lawyer would want to read.
2 different clocks
The exam window runs in hours. The deadline runs in years.
the exam window in Kolkata
You can get a free forensic medical exam at any government or private hospital at any time, with your consent at each step. Evidence is most likely to be found within 72 hours, and is still sometimes collected up to 96 hours.
This is the clock that runs out fast. You can be examined without deciding whether to go to the police.
the limitation period
This is the deadline for the case itself — how long the law gives before a prosecution can no longer be brought. It is usually many years for rape, and often longer or unlimited when the survivor was a child.
Missing the exam window does not mean the limitation period has passed. They are separate clocks.
where to report in Kolkata
Go to any police station in Kolkata and ask to file a Zero FIR. You can also go directly to the Women's Grievance Cell at Kolkata Police Headquarters, Lalbazar. Kolkata also has dedicated women's police stations such as Amherst Street Women PS.
if the deadline has passed
A closed case is not the same as no record.
If the period above has run out where you are, a prosecution may no longer be possible. That is the plain truth and we will not dress it up. 3 things are still open to you.
a timestamped report
What you write here is dated and kept. Years later, a record that existed before anyone asked for it carries weight a memory does not.
a sealed report that can match
Seal it against an identifier — a profile link, a phone, a workplace. Nobody sees it until someone else names the same person. Their case may still be inside the deadline.
a pin on the map
Publish it and the next person searching Kolkata can see it. He stays an alias unless a court, the police or the press have already published his name.
Many countries also treat the clock differently when the survivor was a child, when the offence is ongoing, or when new evidence appears. A support organisation in this list can tell you whether that applies to you.
who can tell you today
People in Kolkata who do this every day.
These are independent of Escrow. They know how the deadline is read in practice where you are, and they can also just talk.
Lalbazar Women's Grievance Cell (Kolkata Police)
National Commission for Women Helpline
sources
The deadline above came from one of these.
- Women's Rights
Kolkata Police (West Bengal government) · checked 29 August 2026
- Other Institutions
Swayam (women's rights NGO, Kolkata) · checked 29 August 2026
other places
The deadline somewhere else.
If you were somewhere else in India, read the deadline for India. It covers the towns we have not written up yet.
This is information, not legal advice.
Nobody here is your lawyer. The deadline above is quoted from a source we read, and the date we read it is beside it. Laws change, and an office may read a deadline differently from the statute. For your own case, ask a lawyer or a support organisation in Kolkata.
If something here is out of date, write to hello@escrow.nanocorp.app and we will check it and say when we did.
when you are ready
There is no deadline for writing it down here. A report on Escrow can be made years afterwards, and nothing happens until you say so.
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