Police said on Monday they suspect that the men and women who had entered the Jadavpur University campus last Wednesday wearing army-like fatigues wanted to “tamper with evidence” related to the death of the first-year student.
The leader of the group, Quazi Sadeque Hossain, was arrested on Saturday.
“Quazi Sadeque Hossain, the self-proclaimed secretary general of the Asian Human Rights Society, has been very non-cooperative till now. He has not revealed yet why he led a force of men and women in army-like uniform that descended on JU and cited false connections to the Indian Army and the National Human Rights Commission,” said an officer at Lalbazar on Monday.
“We suspect they might have gone there to destroy some evidence related to the student’s death,” the officer said.
The 17-year-old student was allegedly ragged and thrown off a second-floor balcony of JU Main Hostel on the night of August 9. He died at a private hospital early next morning.
A week later, a battery of uniformed men and women descended on the campus offering to provide “security” and “manual surveillance”. Initially, members of the group said they were from the army. Later, they said they were attached to the National Human Rights Commission.
An officer involved in the probe said they are contemplating contacting all the persons whose names and numbers are mentioned on the letterhead of the “Asian Human Rights Commission”, which was found in Hossain’s possession.
“We have found several fake identity cards and letterheads of various organisations at his Garden Reach home. We are not ruling out the possibility that he had lied to members of the group and brought them to JU making some other promises. This needs verification,” said the officer.
The police had started a suo motu case as the JU authorities were initially reluctant to complain against the group. On Friday, two days after the group had entered the campus, the university finally lodged a police complaint against them.
“We are using technology to ascertain the identity of the men and women who came that day. We have also sought any available CCTV footage of the portico of Aurobindo Bhavan, where they had stationed themselves while Hossain was holding a meeting with the officiating VC,” the officer said.
A senior officer overseeing the probe said they were checking the background of the “Asian Human Rights Society”, which Hossain claimed was an NGO. “We are probing its financial dealings and also trying to find out who are its beneficiaries,” the officer said.
Hossain had reportedly offered to provide security on the university campus for free. “It is not clear why any organisation with fake identity would want to provide security on the campus for free unless it had some ulterior motive,” the officer said.
“Had the JU authorities reported the matter to the police the moment they had entered the campus, the probe could have been expedited.”