West Bengal: Don’t worry, I’m not going to end my life, Jadavpur University boy told medical officer
Times of India | 29 July 2024
The MTech student was reportedly tortured at the Main Hostel on allegations of stealing a laptop KOLKATA: The Jadavpur University MTech student, who was mentally tortured at the Main Hostel on allegations of stealing a laptop, told the university’s medical officer that he will not end his life as he was being shifted to the hospital on Wednesday night.
“He (Biswajit Pramanik) understood that I was scared of his condition without me saying anything.He told me not to worry as he will not end his life. He repeatedly asked me to see that under no circumstances his education is hampered at JU. I felt extremely bad,” JU medical officer Mitali Deb told TOI.
The university’s anti-ragging squad visited the Main Hostel on Friday night to find out the sequence of events by talking to the boarders. They found out that the student had expressed his desire to leave the hostel that night itself when he was being surrounded and targeted.
A source said: “After the missing laptop was recovered, his fellow boarders started harassing him. At that time, he told the hostel super that he wanted to leave the hostel. He was sweating profusely and his hands were shivering.”
The hostel super informed Rajat Ray, the dean of students, about his condition and Deb was sent to the Main Hostel to rescue him, where she found the boy in a panic-stricken state and was being forced to write a confessional statement.
“The boy was under tremendous pressure. Without asking, he started saying that he was the thief. That struck me. It seemed like he was tutored to say that. I tore off the paper on which he was made to write the undertaking,” Deb added.
A professor who is a part of the anti-ragging squad pointed out that a “terror-like” situation prevails at the Main Hostel. “A certain section of students creates this terror-like situation for political motives. It was not the case when we were students during the late 90s,” he said.
During the interaction with the squad members, the fellow boarders told them that Pramanik had stolen the laptop and he himself had confessed to it. But the squad members categorically told them that “ganging up” against an individual and forcing him to write confession statements was not tolerable. Moreover, resisting the university’s medical officer from rescuing a student in a state of “near collapse” for an hour and asking her to sign an undertaking was an offence in itself.
A senior official of JU said: “This culture of stopping university officials from performing their task during crisis hours needs to stop. We had planned to initiate an inquiry as obstructing the work of the medical officer is a punishable offence. Moreover, we also need to find out the whole incident and whether and how the laptop was stolen. The mob mentality of students and the kangaroo court culture is unacceptable.”