A member of Jadavpur University’s executive council has written to the vice-chancellor, accusing the university of adopting a “go-slow” approach on the issue of taking action against those who were found responsible in the university’s inquiry into ragging a first-year student last year.
Kazi Masum Akhtar, the member of the university’s highest decision-making body, has sought to know from the VC why the authorities could not act on the decision which was adopted at the meeting of the executive council held on May 24 on the issue of ragging.
The JU anti-ragging committee’s recommendations stated the permanent rustication of four students who were found to be present and “fully involved in ragging either on the spot on the night of 9th August 2023 or/and before it”.
The committee, which based its recommendation on the findings of the university’s anti-ragging squad, also recommended the rustication of five students for four semesters and their expulsion from the JU hostel permanently as they “were found to be directly associated with criminal conspiracy to rag”.
The first-year undergraduate student died in the early hours of August 10, 2023.
However, the university has yet to act on the committee’s recommendations.
“Why is the university adopting a go-slow approach against those who have been found guilty of ragging the first-year student in the university’s own probe?” wrote Akhtar.
“It has been close to a year since the death of a first-year student in the hostel because of an alleged ragging....When you assumed responsibilities as VC, you vowed to curb ragging. Unfortunately, the university is not taking any steps....”
The committee’s report meeting also says that the dean of students did not go to the JU main hostel on the night of August 9 last year despite getting a distress call about the first-year student who died a few hours later.
The report said JU’s dean of students had failed to understand the “gravity of the situation in the hostel” even after a resident alerted him over the phone about trouble in the main hostel on the night of August 9, hours before a first-year student fell to his death, says an internal probe.
“Why did the executive council not take any steps against him?” the executive council member wrote.
The university in its last council meeting announced a prize in the memory of the deceased student. But by delaying actions against those who stand guilty for the death of the student, the university is dishonouring the memory, he said.
JU’s interim VC Bhaskar Gupta said: “I have not gone through the letter. Actions will be taken in accordance with law.”
