Teachers at Jadavpur University have expressed concern over increasing complaints of harassment of students at the main hostel.

The teachers said during a meeting of their association's executive council on Tuesday that they were worried because of the way a postgraduate first-year student was harassed and humiliated in the main hostel after being accused of stealing a laptop last week, members of the association said.

The university's medical superintendent, who went to the hostel to rescue the student, was allegedly harassed by a section of residents and that, the teachers said, was "worrying".

The teachers said that if the university administration does not enforce discipline, complaints of harassment will keep pouring.

Partha Pratim Roy, secretary of the Jadavpur University Teachers' Association, said: "We are extremely concerned over the increasing number of complaints of harassment of students emerging from the main hostel. We are deeply worried that a postgraduate first-year student was last week subjected to alleged harassment and humiliated in a kangaroo court of sorts in the university’s main hostel. Even the medical superintendent was not spared."

He added: "It seems a parallel administration is being run at the university's main hostel by a few students and the university has failed to stop it."

The first-year postgraduate computer science student had to be admitted to hospital on July 25 night after he suffered a panic attack following complaints of harassment and humiliation in a "kangaroo court" at the main hostel.

The student, who was discharged from the hospital the next day, has not yet returned to the hostel or resumed attending classes.

On Thursday, the student from Purulia told The Telegraph that he was not sure when he would be able to join classes because last week's incident has left him "deeply disturbed".

"I had come from Purulia to study. But what I experienced was something unexpected and disturbing. I am still traumatised. So I don't know when I will be able to go to the campus and resume classes. I want to stay away from the campus for some time to get my composure back," Biswajit Pramanik said.

Biswajit had earlier described how "60-70 students" ganged up on him and forced him to admit that he had stolen a student’s laptop. "I don’t intend to lodge any complaint against anyone but the incident of that night has left me disturbed,” he had said.

"My parents don't want me to return to the main hostel. The university has told me that if I want, they can accommodate me at some other hostel. I need time to decide. I have heard that the university has constituted a committee to probe what happened at the main hostel. I want a fair probe."

A JU teacher said they had expected that harassment at hostels would come down after the death of a first-year undergraduate student last year. "But nothing seems to have changed at the main hostel," the teacher said.

When contacted, JU interim vice-chancellor Bhaskar Gupta said: "I will address any queries from media persons in a press conference on Friday."