Jadavpur University has yet to take any action against those who have been held guilty, in a probe by its internal committee, of ragging a first-year student hours before his death on August 10.
The university’s anti-ragging committee, which is authorised to decide on the quantum of punishment, met on Monday evening, not to take any action but to ask the anti-ragging squad to revisit the findings so some of the “inconsistencies” could be sorted out.
It is not that the squad had not gone through the committee’s report earlier. It had met on October 4 and made certain observations.
But it took the university almost a month to place those observations before the anti-ragging committee, which resolved on Monday that the squad would start addressing the inconsistencies.
A JU official said the probe is stuck in a back-and-forth between the committee and the squad and there is a “possibility of further delays”.
A member of the anti-ragging committee said it emerged at Monday’s meeting that the internal committee had erred in recommending that all senior residents (95 students) who stayed in the A-2 block of the main hostel be expelled on the ground that they have been held guilty of “taking part in the conspiracy to suppress the facts related to ragging”.
“Instead of recommending a blanket expulsion,
they should have mentioned the varying level of involvement in the alleged offence of each accused and then pronounced specific punishment for each,” the member said.
The first-year student whose death the committee probed stayed in the A-2 block of the main hostel. He was allegedly thrown off a second-floor balcony by senior students on the night of August 9. The 17-year-old died in a private hospital early on August 10.
Another committee member said there are inconsistencies in terms of taking deposition from students.
“While students from the engineering and technology faculty were asked to depose, those from the arts and science faculties were left out. This has to be corrected as well. The squad had to be given 15 days starting from Monday to clear these inconsistencies,” he said.
Metro reported on September 16 that the report of the internal committee had been tabled before the university’s anti-ragging committee the day before.
Before that, the report was handed to officiating vice-chancellor Buddhadeb Sau.
“It is baffling that these inconsistencies in the report did not come to anyone’s notice then. The inconsistencies are being detected now. This is nothing but a ploy to delay the proceedings,” said a JU official.
VC Sau told Metro: “The committee members found some inconsistencies concerning the report. Therefore, it has been referred back to the anti-ragging squad.”