Joydip Ghosh, a former student at Jadavpur University who has been arrested for allegedly stopping police from entering the main hostel after a first-year student was allegedly thrown off a balcony, was shifted from police to judicial remand on Thursday.
Ghosh’s lawyer submitted in the additional chief judicial magistrate’s court in Alipore that the charges against his client were false and cited an alleged delay by the police in lodging the complaint.
“The victim died on August 10. But the police lodged the FIR on August 13. Did it take them three days to realise the offence? Also, the police officers were not injured at all. To start a case under Section 353 of the IPC, a government official has to be subjected to physical injury,” said Ghosh’s lawyer.
The former JU student has been booked under Section 353.
The lawyer appealed for Ghosh’s bail. “I request the court to grant my client bail...,” he said, citing Ghosh’s recent ailments.
The police said Ghosh and others were instrumental in locking the main gate of the JU main hostel campus and not allowing the police to enter after the 17-year-old student was allegedly thrown off the second floor.
The police had earlier submitted that Ghosh and others had also denied them access to the victim at the hospital.
Chief public prosecutor Sourin Ghosal, who on Thursday sought an extension of the police remand for Ghosh, submitted in the court that the team of officers who had gone to the hostel on the night of the incident was not allowed entry.
“Had the police been allowed inside the campus, the course of events could have been different,” Ghosal said.