Education minister Bratya Basu said he would speak to the Jadavpur University authorities on why no action has yet been taken against those held responsible, in an internal probe by the institution, for ragging a first-year student who died in August last year.

The student suffered fatal injuries after being allegedly thrown by seniors from the second-floor balcony of JU Main Hostel during ragging.

The minister also said he would appeal to the university’s students to be more sympathetic towards junior students.

Basu expressed the hope that tackling indiscipline on the campus would be easier once a full-term VC is appointed.

The Bengal government has published an advertisement seeking applications for the appointment of full-term VCs in the 36 state-aided universities, which have been functioning with interim heads for around one-and-a-half years.

Many at the JU have blamed the university’s failure to act against those who have been found guilty in last year’s incident of ragging in the main hostel for the recurrence of complaints of harassment in the same hostel.

The university on Friday decided to start a probe to find out whether a first-year postgraduate computer science student was forced to attend a kangaroo court in the main hostel on Wednesday night, following which he had to be admitted to a private hospital.

The parents of the first-year JU student who died last year because of alleged ragging told The Telegraph they were not surprised by the allegations of harassment emerging again in the hostel because the university had failed to punish any student found responsible for the death of their son a year ago.

On Saturday, the minister spoke while responding to questions on the university’s alleged failure to act tough on the students who were held guilty in the internal probe into the death of the first-year student.

“I would try to speak to the university authorities about this,” the minister said.

Asked why complaints of harassment were repeatedly emerging from JU Main Hostel, Basu said: “On Friday, the higher education department came up with an advertisement for the appointment of full-term vice-chancellors in state-aided universities through a search-cum-selection committee following the intervention of the Supreme Court. I believe since you are talking about Jadavpur University, once a full-term VC is appointed, such complaints could be combated to a large extent.”

“I will also appeal to the students to think about their parents, and their families and be sympathetic towards junior students,” Basu said.

The father of the deceased student had met Basu last November and told him that the family was not happy with the university’s role.

“I appealed to the minister to ensure that we get justice. The university is dilly-dallying in taking action against those responsible for my son’s death. Our sir (Bratya Basu) is the education minister. My son died on campus. I want him to ensure that those who ragged my son get exemplary punishment,” the father had said after meeting Basu on the Assembly premises on November 30.

The alleged dilly-dallying continues.

The university has yet to issue show-cause letters to the accused students who have been found guilty of ragging by JU’s anti-ragging committee.

The committee’s report, which was submitted to the university authorities in December last year, said five residents of the main hostel, who the report said were “present” during the ragging, “may be rusticated for four semesters and expelled from JU hostels permanently”.

It also recommended that 25 hostel residents be rusticated for one semester and expelled from hostels permanently as they were “directly associated with abetment to ragging”.

In a meeting of the university’s executive council held on July 5, it was decided that the university would issue show-cause notices to those who have been implicated so they could defend themselves.

But the university has yet to act.

JU registrar Snehamaju Basu said on Saturday evening they would start issuing the show-cause letters on Monday.