Aug 16, Six more former and current students of Jadavpur University were arrested for allegedly ragging and sexually harassing a freshman student of the varsity leading to his death, and were remanded to police custody by a city court on Wednesday.

This takes the total number of apprehended persons in this case to nine, a police officer said.

The court remanded the six – three current students and three former ones – to police custody till August 28.

The victim of the alleged ragging was a 17-year-old boy who died after falling from a second-floor balcony of a hostel last week.

Leading a delegation of the ruling Trinamool Congress, Education Minister Bratya Basu met the family of the boy at his home in Nadia district and accused a section of students and ex-students of creating an atmosphere of anarchy in Jadavpur University.

The police have taken cognisance of JU students’ social media posts, including photographs, which suggest that there was an element of sexual harassment in the ragging of the deceased.

The officer said the three former students of the varsity had been staying at the hostel illegally and fled Kolkata after the death of the Bengali department student.

“We arrested them (three ex-students) last night after they gave incoherent replies to our officers during questioning as multiple raids were conducted at different places in Purba Medinipur and South 24 Parganas districts where they had fled. It seems they were actively involved in the student’s death,” he told PTI.

Of the three others, two are current third-year civil engineering students, and one is studying electrical engineering, he said, adding that they were boarders of the hostel.

He said there was no CCTV camera at the hostel, which violates the standard norms.

Meanwhile, the Registrar of JU on Wednesday met Joint CP Crime on Wednesday at Lalbazar, the Kolkata Police headquarters.

The police also talked to a functionary of the Jadavpur University Teachers’ Association (JUTA) at Lalbazar on the issue, he said.

“The Dean of the students who was gheraoed by agitating students could not come,” the officer said.

The police earlier arrested an ex-student and two current students of JU for their alleged involvement in ragging the undergraduate student who died on August 10, hours after falling from the balcony of a hostel.

Governor CV Ananda Bose, also the chancellor of the varsity, held a meeting with senior JU officials at Raj Bhavan.

He asked them to ensure that there is no repetition of such an incident in the future, a Raj Bhavan official told PTI.

During the meeting, Bose also asked them to fill up all vacancies in the varsity, the official said.

Earlier in the day, a TMC delegation comprising senior leaders such as Women and Child Development Minister Shashi Panja and Minister of State for Health Chandrima Bhattacharya went to Bagula in Nadia district and met the parents of the deceased.

“What has happened is extremely unfortunate. The police already arrested a few people, and those who are involved in it must be punished,” Education Minister Bratya Basu told reporters.

The TMC leaders assured the family of all help.

“It seems a section of students and ex-students have created an atmosphere of anarchy and chaos inside the campus for years. What kind of politics is this that you pounce upon a student just because he is from a semi-rural area and dreams of making it big in life? Such unruly elements now stand exposed,” he said.

Several people including students from Bagula arrived at Jadavpur and protested against the incident. Members of the ruling party’s student wing Trinamool Chhatra Parishad Tmcp and the Left students union also staged protests there.

The deceased was a first-year undergraduate student of Bengali (Honours).

He allegedly fell from the second-floor balcony of the main hostel around 11.45 pm on August 9 and died while undergoing treatment at a hospital the next day.

Source: PTI

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