A committee that Jadavpur University set up to probe if the varsity’s medical superintendent who went to rescue a first-year MTech student in late July was hindered by students and told to write an undertaking has found the allegations to be true.

The medical superintendent went to rescue the student who was allegedly forced to attend a kangaroo court in the main hostel on charges of stealing a laptop.

The traumatised student had to be admitted to a private hospital as he suffered a panic attack.

The four-member enquiry committee, in its recommendation submitted to the vice-chancellor before Durga Puja, said the university authorities must ask the offending student who was leading the group to write an apology on paper, which will be construed as a valid university document and can be preserved as a record.

JU, often accused of not acting on complaints despite probes, is yet to act on the recommendation.

A member of the committee said: “It has been proved that the medical superintendent was prevented when she went to the main hostel to rescue the student. The hostel residents gathered in the corridor also demanded a written undertaking from the doctor before allowing Biswajit Pramanik to leave with her. Since the allegations have been proved, we have recommended that one of the offending students be asked to tender an apology on a piece of paper that will be regarded as a valid university document.”

The medical superintendent of Jadavpur University, Mitali Deb, who had gone to the main hostel following an alert from the warden, said she had found the student surrounded by fellow students who were forcing him to sign an undertaking admitting that he stole a laptop.

Deb complained that the students tried to stop her multiple times while she was taking the harassed student out of the hostel on the night of July 25.

Deb said on Saturday: “The students asked me to say in an undertaking that was demanded of me that I would be responsible if anything untoward happened to the student after I escorted him out. I refused and went on to take Biswajit to the ambulance.”

Deb was stopped again after the student boarded the ambulance. She was asked to leave in her car and told that the ambulance would follow later.

Deb, who was also a member of the team that probed the death of a 17-year-old
undergraduate student after he was allegedly ragged last year, held her ground and left the campus only after the ambulance with Biswajit left.

“I don’t know what the outcome of the probe was. Nobody has told me anything. I am eagerly looking to the university to take some action based on what the committee has recommended. In the wake of the incident, the VC also promised that the medical superintendent would be henceforth provided security. But that has not happened,” Deb told The Telegraph on Saturday.

Calls and text messages to officiating VC Bhaskar Gupta went unanswered.

The committee has not said anything about the alleged harassment of the student as he had not lodged a formal complaint.

A member of the committee said since the medical superintendent requested the authorities to conduct a probe, her complaint was investigated.

The computer science and technology student from Purulia has been staying in a rented accommodation because he is too scared to return to the main hostel, which is about 250m from the campus.

The student wanted accommodation in a hostel on the campus. But the authorities told him that those were earmarked for first-year undergraduate students following the death of the 17-year-old fresher who was allegedly ragged by seniors in the main hostel last year.