Forty students were suspended from the state-run College of Medicine and JNM Hospital in West Bengal’s Kalyani following allegations against them of threatening fellow students and exam-related malpractices.

As of Thursday, the students have been barred from the hostel, hospital, and college campus for at least six months pending further investigations, though they will be allowed in for their examinations. They have also been indefinitely barred from contesting student body elections.

The suspended students will reportedly face an inquiry by the Anti-Ragging Committee, Internal Complaint Committee, or a special inquiry committee. Copies of the “extensive wealth of documents… against the accused” would be given to police.

These decisions were made on Thursday by the Extended College Council, which also dissolved the Students’ Welfare Committee and removed all class representatives.

“Police picketing and patrolling should be arranged at the hostel premises from today until the situation normalises. The money that was forcefully collected from the students should be returned to the person within seven days from today, failing which action will be taken against them,” read minutes of the council’s meeting.

The council said that complaints had arisen about “illegal occupants” in the boy’s hostel who were also “part of the threat syndicate”. “(Those suspended) include students, former students, (interns) and PGTs. They have been asked to vacate the hostel by 8 pm tonight (September 19) without fail,” the minutes read.

Students of the college had alleged that ex-principal Dr Avijeet Mukherjee and assistant professor Dr Ayan Ghosh have been part of the “threat syndicate” and malpractices in exam-related processes. The council unanimously endorsed the students’ demand that both professors should be withheld from holding any administrative or decision-making post.

The council decided that a democratically-elected student body needed to be formed. “The temporary selection of new CRs will be done by the principal and Dean of students’ affairs in consultation with students of the respective year,” the meeting’s minutes read, reiterating that the “threat syndicate needs to stop and never repeat”.

“A committee should be formed to review the exam-related malpractices in this institution over the past three years… Students also requested security and safety of the complainants in all forms,” further read the minutes.

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