Jadavpur University has given its anti-ragging squad another 15 days to file its report, based on which the authorities will decide what action to be taken against the students found guilty in an internal probe of ragging a first-year student hours before his death.
Officiating vice-chancellor Buddhadeb Sau said on Friday the anti-ragging squad has been given another 15 days because the body had failed to complete its task by the earlier deadline, November 16.
“The new deadline is December 1. Thereafter, the anti-ragging committee of the university will meet to decide on the course of action,” Sau told Metro.
The VC’s statement came a day after a JU professor sat on a hunger strike on the campus to protest the alleged delay in punishing those who were found guilty of ragging the first-year student.
The fresher was allegedly thrown off a second-floor balcony of the JU Main Hostel on the night of August 9. He died early next morning at a private hospital.
On Friday, JU issued a circular saying: “It is notified for information of all concerned that as per EC (executive council) resolution taken in the Zero hours of the 35th
EC meeting dated 26/09/23
and 11/10/23, the students who are in connection to the incident happened at the main hostel in the night of 9th August, will not be allowed to enter the university campus including the hostels until they are discharged from all the allegations brought against them.”
The six students named in the circular are Dipankar Dutta, Manotosh Ghosh, Md Asif Afzal Ansari, Ankan Sarkar, Satyabrata Roy and Md Arif.
The hunger strike seems to have pushed the university administration into taking some steps, said a JU official.
“They are making public a resolution which was adopted against those who are in judicial custody. The VC has spoken about taking action after getting the report of the anti-ragging squad and recommendations of the anti-ragging committee,” said the official.
“Before that there was hardly any development, though three-and-a-half-months have passed since the death of the student.”
The report of an internal committee set up by JU to investigate the student’s death was tabled at a meeting of the anti-ragging committee on September 15.
The report says the student “was singled out for ragging” on the night of August 9
and the ragging was “carried out in a systematic plan-
ned manner” at the main hostel.
The committee suggested specific punishments for those it held responsible for the ragging.
Iman Kalyan Lahiri, the professor who sat on a hunger strike on Thursday, said he held the protest because the university was not taking any action against those who were found guilty of ragging in the internal probe.
“We have heard that the anti-ragging squad has been asked to address some inconsistencies in the inquiry report. But this cannot take so long. The university cannot afford an inordinate delay. I withdrew protest on Thursday night after the VC promised me of taking action soon,” Lahiri said on Friday.
VC Sau said a final decision on action against the students found guilty of ragging would be taken at a meeting of the executive council, the highest decision-making body of the university.
The state government has barred JU from convening any meeting of the council because it does not have a full-term vice-chancellor.