The UGC has informed IIT Kharagpur that its anti-ragging helpline has received a complaint which states that some second-year students have been “mentally harassed” by seniors.
A parent of a second-year student has informed the UGC that senior students take juniors to their hostel late at night and force them “to dance and play games through the night”.
The UGC’s communication to the IIT says: “The victim and his batchmates (pursuing second-year third semester) has been mentally harassed by the senior students of 3rd and 4th year.… Due to these incidents the victims are unable to study.”
The IIT has lodged an FIR “against unknown persons”.
Calls, emails and text messages from this newspaper to the director of the IIT, V.K. Tewari, failed to elicit any response.
The complaint comes at a time when the institute stands accused of not being able to carry out a fair probe into the death of its student Faizan Ahmed who, his parents alleged, was subjected to ragging at a hostel in February 2022.
Faizan, who was found dead in a hostel room in October 2022, was in second year when he was allegedly ragged.
The dean of students, Bhargab Maitra, in an email to all students has said the student whose parent has lodged the complaint should send an email to his personal email address “so that prompt and appropriate further action can be taken”.
“The mail ID given is the personal mail ID of the Dean and, therefore complete secrecy will be maintained,” the email says.
The dean told The Telegraph: “We have taken both proactive and reactive measures. As part of the proactive measures an email was sent to the students and a Google form was circulated (about being forced to participate in the illumination event). As part of the reactive measures we have carried out vigilance in the halls of residence....”
In early November, the mother of a student had lodged a complaint with the dean saying junior students were being “forced” to take part in the illumination events planned for Diwali. She also alleged that vigilance to curb ragging at hostels have “suddenly disappeared”.