Three students and three former students of Jadavpur University were arrested early on Wednesday in connection with the death of a first-year student, who was allegedly thrown from the main hostel last week.
Altogether, nine persons have been arrested in connection with the 17-year-old’s death. All have been charged with murder and common intention.
The three students who were arrested on Wednesday are Mohammad Asif Afzal Ansari, 22 (fourth-year electrical engineering), and Mohammad Arif, 18, and Ankan Sarkar, 20 (both third-year civil engineering).
The former students who have been rounded up are Asit Sardar, 21, (Sanskrit), Suman Naskar, 26, (philosophy) and Saptak Kamilya, 27, (environmental studies).
The police said all six were at the spot on the night of August 9 when the first-year student was allegedly ragged and then thrown from a second-floor balcony of the main hostel. The boy was declared dead at a hospital early next morning.
“Asit Sardar was arrested in Kultali (South-24 Parganas), Saptak Kamilya in Egra (East Midnapore) and Suman Naskar in Mandirbazar (South 24-Parganas). All three had fled after the death and switched off their phones,” said a senior officer involved in the inquiry.
One of the three students, Mohammad Arif, was questioned after the death. He had apparently told the police that he had tried to grab the first-year student when he ran past him on the night of August 9. But as the victim was not wearing anything and was sweating profusely, Arif had apparently said, he slipped out of his grasp.
The police, however, suspect that Arif was involved in the trauma inflicted on the first-year student, which led to his death.
The alleged torture of the 17-year-old had started with writing a letter, the police said.
A letter addressed to the “Dean of Studies” and purportedly bearing the signature of the victim was found in a white-grey diary in room 104 of the hostel. The letter mentioned the name of a senior student.
The police said it was the idea of Sourav Chowdhury, a former student of JU who was the first to be arrested in connection with the death, and Saptak Kamilya to manufacture the letter and name a particular student.
“Deepsekhar Dutta (one of the JU students arrested earlier) has admitted having written the letter in room number 104 (of the hostel). He has claimed that he wrote the letter at the victim’s insistence,” said an officer.
The letter was written on August 9 night, before the ragging started, the police said.
“It appears the victim was asked by seniors, as part of ragging, to give his ‘intro’ to all boarders of the hostel. There is a possibility that he was either asked to or forced to remove his clothes during this ‘intro’ session and made to visit all the rooms of the hostel to introduce himself in that condition,” the officer said on Wednesday.
This newspaper had reported earlier the experience of a student of Jadavpur University, who had explained the process of giving “intro” in a hostel. As part of the intro session, freshers are asked to be scantily dressed and knock on the door of all rooms at night. Then they are asked to share their names and personal details, including the description of their bodies.
“A preliminary inquiry has revealed that the victim was undergoing this kind of harassment when someone in the hostel alerted the dean of students, who, in turn, got in touch with the hostel superintendent. The superintendent, however, has said he was ‘scared’ to enter the building and returned after inspecting the building from outside. Apparently, he found nothing amiss,” said the officer.
Calls from this newspaper to the mobile number of hostel superintendent Tapan Kumar Jana went unanswered.
The six who were arrested on Wednesday have been remanded in police custody till August 28.
The other three youths who were arrested earlier are in police remand till August 22.