JU ragging victim’s father to record statement soon
Times of India | 8 August 2024
Kolkata: The father of the first-year JU student who died after a fall on the hostel premises is likely to record his statement to the prosecution soon. On Wednesday, a local Pocso court examined the doctor who carried out the postmortem and the prosecution produced an important witness, a barber. Sources said the barber was forced by the accused to cut the first-year hostel boarders’ hair.
However, the process of recording could be initiated on Wednesday. The cross-questioning of the autopsy doctor, too, is pending.
The victim died on Aug 9 last year. The charge sheet had been placed at the local Pocso court on Oct 19 and trials had begun in March this year.
“The charges were framed under IPC section 305, which caters to abetment of suicide of any child or insane person, along with IPC 34. If convicted, the accused can be sentenced to death or life imprisonment. The cops have also charged the accused under sections 10, 12 and 17 of the Pocso Act (punishment for aggravated sexual assault, sexual harassment upon a child and abetment to crime), as well as section 4 of the West Bengal Prohibition of Ragging In Educational Institutions, 2020, Act.
All the accused are in judicial custody after individual bail attempts were rejected by the courts, including the Calcutta High Court.
The accused — comprising six current and six former JU students — were initially facing murder charges under the IPC but that was later dropped from the charge sheet.