Mita Mukherjee

The Kolkata Police made two more arrests in connection with the alleged ragging and subsequent death of a first-year student of Jadavpur University.

The two arrested are second year students of Jadavpur University including Deepsekhar Dutta (19) who studies economics and Monotosh Ghosh, sociology honours.

The police said they have been charged under IPC section dealing with murder and common intention. They have been remanded in police custody till August 22.

Earlier, the police had arrested a former student of the university, Sourav Chowdhury who had completed his master’s in mathematics in 2022 but continued to stay on at the hostel.

According to the police a diary was found along with some belongings of the victim, a student of Bengali honours who after being subjected to intense ragging fell from the balcony of the hostel building in the university around 11.45 pm on Wednesday. He was taken to a nearby hospital, allegedly with multiple wounds in his body, where he died at 4.30 am on Thursday.

The police found a letter, purportedly signed by him, inside the diary. The letter was addressed to the dean of students, the police said. According to sources the police are examining whether the letter was written by the victim or a manufactured one. The letter mentions that the victim had been told by his seniors that if junior students like him disobeyed orders of their seniors they could be thrown from the rooftop.

The sample of the victim’s handwriting has been collected by the police from his residence at Bagula in Nadia district.

Meanwhile, the advisor to the West Bengal Commission for the Protection of Child Rights, Ananya Chatterjee Chakraborti said she has requested the police to add sections of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act in the case. She has made the appeal as according to her, the victim was not yet 18 years. Since he has not completed 18 years he can no longer be identified as per law.

Chatterjee Chakraborti has also urged the need for installing CCTV cameras at the hostels to prevent recurrence of similar crimes but not for moral policing.

The Jadavpur University Teachers’ Association (JUTA) on Saturday issued a notice where it has stated that teachers of the institution will not support students if they launch “unjust” protests to protect the guilty students.

At Jadavpur University teachers are often accused of supporting students when they launched protests against decisions taken by the university authorities to punish students found guilty of ragging their juniors.

Also Read: Jadavpur University alumnus arrested in connection with death of first-year student