Justice Rajasekhar Mantha of Calcutta High Court on Friday accused the IIT Kharagpur authorities of “trying to cover up” the death of a student who had allegedly been ragged by some seniors.
The director on Friday made an in-person appearance in Justice Mantha’s court in connection with the case.
The judge made the observation when Anindya Mitra, who is representing the director, V.K. Tiwari, submitted that his client had taken all steps to provide natural justice to the parents of Faizan Ahmed, the deceased student.
“Why is your director failing to understand? A boy has died in such a way and the authorities are trying to cover up the matter,” Justice Mantha told Mitra.
Then he told Tewari: “Do you have children? You think of them, then you will understand the pain of the parents who cannot come from Guwahati to the court for want of money.”
“What is more important to the director? Answering to the court or going somewhere else to attend a seminar? Why are you taking this matter of ragging lightly? The court wants the director to be proactive in taking steps.”
Faizan’s parents live in Guwahati.
Justice Mantha had brought forward the date of Tiwari’s in-person appearance disregarding an appeal that the appearance, originally scheduled for January 24, be postponed.
Faizan, a third-year student of mechanical engineering, was found dead in a hostel room on October 14.
The judge had asked the director to appear in the court after expressing dissatisfaction with the report he had submitted in November on the steps the institution had taken in regard to what appeared to the court as a case of “ragging”.
A writ petition Faizan’s parents had filed in October said the student had declined to join an “assimilation programme”. The parents had said the “assimilation programme” was a glorified form of ragging.
Justice Mantha had in November asked the director to mention the names of the students involved in the “ragging”. Lawyer Mitra on Friday submitted a report running into several pages to the court.
It was not known whether the report contained the names of the students involved in the “ragging”.
Calls to the director from this newspaper went unanswered.
Coast Guard exercise
The Indian Coast Guard trained their Bangladeshi counterparts in sea pollution response and control at a six-day exercise that was held in Chittagong in Bangladesh, an officer of the Indian Coast Guard said.
Two Indian Coast Guard patrol ships ICGS Shaurya and ICGS Rajveer sailed to the Chittagong port in Bangladesh on January 13. A pollution response team of the force conducted a five-day International Maritime Organisation Level I course on pollution response for 20 Bangladesh Coast Guard personnel.
Another senior officer of the Indian Coast Guard said this was the first time a contingent of the Bangladesh Coast Guard was trained in handling sea pollution and responding to incidents such as oil spills.
SNEHAL SENGUPTA