Anti-ragging Squad Moots Expulsion of 35 JU Hostel Seniors for Minor's Death After Ragging

The anti-ragging squad of Jadavpur University has suggested expelling 35 senior students residing in the varsity hostel where a fresher died after falling from the third-floor balcony following ragging on August 10, an official said on Thursday. The anti-ragging squad formed by the university administration after the death of the 17-year-old boy had been asked to take the final call about the ways to implement the internal probe panel’s recommendations on the expulsion of 35 senior students from the A2 block of the main hostel and a decision in this regard will be taken soon, the official said.

The squad, consisting of teachers of different departments, “held them guilty of aiding or abetting of bullying of the fresher and misleading the university and investigators about the sequence of events following the fall of the boy and sticking to one narrative as decided at a general body meeting held immediately after the incident”, the official added. The squad also supported another recommendation of the panel, to expel four senior students from the university for their alleged direct involvement in the ragging of the Bengali honours student leading to his fall from the balcony on October 9, the official said.

Officiating Vice Chancellor Buddhadeb Sau earlier said the anti-ragging squad, which had been tasked to take steps to curb bullying and physical, mental torture on the campus, was the right forum to decide on the issue of deciding the maximum disciplinary action against the senior students involved in the incident and no other university body has such rights. The Executive Council earlier debarred 13 students, arrested in connection with the incident, from entering the campus till acquitted of charges of abetting, conspiring in the ragging of the minor victim but any decision of expulsion, as recommended by the internal probe panel, was left for the squad.

The internal inquiry committee had submitted its findings and recommendations in the first week of September, about a month after being formed immediately after the death of the first-year student which witnessed waves of protests and rallies near the JU campus and inside the university.