A year after ragging death, JU students hold mass convention
Times of India | 10 August 2024
Kolkata: A year after a Bengali first-year student died after a fall from the second-floor balcony of Jadavpur University’s Main Hostel, a section of JU students organised a mass convention near the Fetsu union room, demanding justice for the ragging victim. The university has not been able to ensure any punishment for those found guilty by the varsity probe panel.
SFI members also held a protest and demonstration outside interim VC Bhaskar Gupta’s room and later gheraoed him alleging the authority’s intentional delay in punishing the accused students. JU has issued show-cause notices to at least 25 students accused of ragging the fresher.
The convention saw theatre personalities Kaushik Sen, Suman Mukhopadhay, Madhurima Goswami, actor Riddhi Sen and others speaking on the ragging menace on the campus and protested against the administration’s delay to take action against the accused. “It is not clear why the university authorities are taking so long to punish the accused,” said Sen. Actor Sujan Mukherjee, also an alumnus, sent a voice note for the convention where he said that the university should ensure that the guilty are punished early.
PG student Anushna Das said, “We sent a proposal to the authority to observe Aug 9 or Aug 10 as anti-ragging day but they did not pay any heed. So we did it on our own.”
An official said, “The university decided to start an award after the ragging victim and Aug 12 will be observed as anti-ragging day as per the UGC advisory.”
Meanwhile, a second-year undergraduate student, who was a fresher last year at the Main Hostel, recounted the fateful night. He last saw the first-year student, who was wearing a blue vest, on the third floor. In a social media post that went viral, the second-year student shared his own traumatizing experiences during the “intro” sessions. He described being forced to cut his hair into a crew cut, wear only full trousers, and witness students being made to rub their noses on the walls. “I was scared to write this all this time, but I did. Otherwise, I felt guilty. I also want an investigation. The culprits should be punished,” read his social media post.