Jadavpur University has accommodated a first-year postgraduate student in a hostel on the campus following a complaint from him last week that he was being harassed by senior students at the main hostel and was feeling “unsafe” there.
The student, in his complaint to the dean of students, pleaded that he be given accommodation in a hostel on the campus.
The JU Main Hostel is about 400m outside the university campus.
A first-year undergraduate student had died in August allegedly because of ragging at the main hostel.
A JU official said they have accommodated the student in the New Boys’ Hostel as an “immediate measure”.
In the immediate aftermath of the undergraduate student’s death in August, the university shifted all the first-year undergraduate students staying in the main hostel to the New Boys’ Hostel.
JU has constituted a four-member committee to probe the harassment complaint lodged by the postgraduate student on November 27.
“There is a UGC rule that if someone lodges a complaint of ragging and the student is feeling unsafe about staying in a facility where he has been allotted accommodation, the person has to be given protection. So, the complainant has been accommodated in the New Boys’ Hostel, pending the completion of the investigation by a committee,” JU officiating vice-chancellor Buddhadeb Sau told Metro.
“We will decide our course of action after the investigation report is submitted.”
A JU official said that since the probe is underway, the complainant would require protection so he could freely depose before the four-member committee and a fair investigation is carried out.
The postgraduate student wrote to the dean that senior students had verbally abused him as he was held responsible for the poor quality of meals in the hostel and was not feeling “safe” anymore.
“I am not feeling safe about staying in the main hostel. It is not possible for me to continue my studies while staying outside the hostel (by renting PG accommodation),” he wrote.
A JU official said he left for home after sending the complaint letter and moved into the New Boys’ Hostel earlier this week.
The university’s anti-ragging squad, which probed the circumstances leading to the undergraduate student’s death in August, had said: “There is a lot of evidence of the fact that the deceased student was ragged in (a particular) block on 9th August 2023. A…. number of boarders of (that) block clearly stated in their depositions that ragging took place in that block in past years too.”
The VC told this newspaper last week: “It is clear from the (harassment) complaint (lodged by the postgraduate student) that things have not changed much in the main
hostel. We need to take action if the complaint is found to be true.”