Complaints of harassment perpetrated on second-year students by seniors suggest that IIT Kharagpur has failed to curb ragging in its hostels even after the death of a student following complaints of ragging, said Rehana Ahmed, mother of the deceased IIT student Faizan.
She said this after UGC recently informed IIT Kharagpur that its anti-ragging helpline received a complaint that said some second-year students have been “mentally harassed” by seniors.
Rehana said the fact that the mother of a second-year student in early-November lodged a separate complaint with the dean of students saying at IIT Kharagpur, junior students are “forced” to take part in the illumination events on Diwali points to the absence of any deterrence mechanism.
The mother of the second-year student who is a resident of the RP Hall of Residence had alleged on November 4 that the vigilance, put in place to curb ragging in the halls following the death of a Jadavpur University student because of alleged ragging, “has suddenly disappeared”.
“It appears from the recurrence of the complaints that the IIT administration has not learnt any lesson from what happened with Faizan. They are still failing to protect the junior students,” Rehana told Metro.
“Had they conducted a fair probe into the death of my son and awarded exemplary punishment to those who ragged him, such recurrence of complaints could have been prevented,” she said.
Faizan, who was a third-year student of mechanical engineering, was found dead in a hostel room on the IIT Kharagpur campus on October 11, 2022. His parents are yet to know how the boy from Assam’s Dibrugarh died.
Rehana alleged that some of Faizan’s seniors did not like his refusal to participate in a group event, which the family says amounts to “collective ragging”.
“The latest complaint lodged with the UGC’s anti-ragging helpline says senior students take juniors to their hostel late at night and force them to dance and play games through the night. Faizan, too, faced this harassment of forced participation at the illumination event, as alleged by the mother of the second-year student. This means even the death of a student failed to change anything on the campus,” said Rehana.
Calls, text messages and an email to IIT director V.K. Tewary went unanswered.
IIT, since receipt of the complaint from the UGC, has lodged an FIR “against unknown persons”.
Dean Bhargab Maitra, in an email to all students on Tuesday said the student whose parent lodged the complaint should send an email to his personal email address “so that prompt and appropriate further action can be taken”.
A Google form was circulated asking students about being forced to participate in the illumination event.
An IIT professor said the flurry of fresh complaints clearly suggests the institute has failed to curb ragging.
“The complaint lodged by the mother is almost an eye opener of sorts. According to her, the vigilance in the hostels has suddenly disappeared. She has accused the IIT authorities of becoming careless. The administration must wake up now,” he said.
The complaint written to the dean said there were checks in the halls to prevent “ragging after the JU incident (on August 10)”.
“All that suddenly has disappeared. The professor and the authorities are careless,” the complaint said.
The parent told the IIT authorities to “ensure strict surveillance” in the halls of residence.