Second-year PG student abused for four hours in Kolkata’s Jadavpur University

Kolkata: A second-year postgraduate student of Kolkata’s Jadavpur University was allegedly abused and threatened for four hours on Tuesday inside the hostel by few engineering students for speaking up against ragging.

The student lodged a complaint with the university’s anti-ragging committee on Wednesday.

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“We have received a complaint from a student about an incident. An enquiry committee was promptly set up. The matter is being enquired,” said Bhaskar Gupta, vice-chancellor of the university.

The student said in his complaint that he had gone to meet a friend in the main hostel on Tuesday. His friend left around 5 pm to attend an iftar party. An hour later two fourth-year students, one from mechanical engineering and the other from computer science and engineering, spotted him in the hostel room. The duo then called a few more students to join them.

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“Upon entering the room, they started abusing me in the filthiest language. They alleged that I had maligned all the hostel inmates and have branded them as raggers, which I never did,”he wrote in the complaint, a copy of which HT has seen.

“They even threatened to harm my mother and forced me to write an apology for that post which I had written a year ago. They dictated every line of the apology letter, which I was then asked to post on social media,” he wrote.

“One of the fourth-year student was also an accused in the August 2023 ragging case. The university, however, couldn’t take any action against him as he had moved the court,” the added in his letter.

In 2023, a first-year student allegedly jumped from the second floor of the hostel on the night of August 9 after he was severely ragged and sexually harassed by a senior and former students who were staying in the hostel illegally. He died on August 10, 2023.

Tuesday’s incident took place inside the same main hostel.

“The report has suggested that the student was severely ragged in multiple rooms in the main hostel that night. He was also seen running down the corridor in a naked condition. The report, however, has failed to conclude whether he jumped to death, (was) pushed from the balcony or it was an accident,” a professor, who has seen the report, said.

Also Read: Jadavpur University report confirms ragging, fails to conclude how 1st year student died

At least 12 students are still in jail after they were arrested and charged with abetment to suicide in the chargesheet filed by the Kolkata Police in October 2023.

Following the incident, JU authorities shifted first-year students to a separate hostel while work is on to install CCTV cameras at the university gates

In July 2024, almost a year after the death of the first-year student, a second-year post graduate student from the film studies department was distributing leaflets on awareness against ragging in the university campus and the hostels, which allegedly led to a confrontation with an accused fourth-year student.

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Meanwhile, demanding student union elections that have not been held for almost 10 years, agitators gathered earlier this month around education minister Bratya Basu’s SUV. During the protest, Indranuj Roy was injured after falling in front of the SUV as students thumped on the vehicle from all sides.