TW: Details of sexual violence, harassment
A 17-year-old teenager from Kolkata’s Jadavpur University (JU) was allegedly sexually molested and paraded naked in the college hostel’s corridors for at least two hours before his death, the Kolkata police found during their initial probe. According to multiple reports, the fresher student was ragged, molested and stripped naked on August 10. He eventually fell from the balcony on the second floor of the hostel building that had four floors, which led to his death. The police had arrested 13 people for alleged involvement in ragging the first-year-student.
The Indian Express reported that the Kolkata police investigators have key evidence of the ragging and said that the student was “disrobed, bullied and abused with homosexual slurs”. The police had reconstructed the harassment in the JU main hostel premises based on the information they gathered. According to the report, the police found that on August 9, around 9 pm, the deceased - residing in Room no 68 - was asked to come to Room no 70 in the second floor of the hostel by the accused, who were his seniors. He was allegedly made to walk on the corridor of the floor and stripped naked.
The boy, in an attempt to escape the harassment, had tried to lock himself in Room no 65, but couldn’t do so, and started running to different rooms, while the accused chased him throwing abusive slurs, until 11 pm that night. The report quotes police saying that he eventually fell down from the balcony at around 11.45pm. “The teen was definitely ragged and sexually molested. We have evidence. Those 12 arrested have played some role in the whole episode,” a police officer told PTI.
The Indian Express report also says that of the 13 arrested, six are current students and six alumni. Twelve of them have been booked for murder and ragging, and one of them for allegedly obstructing police from carrying out their duty. However, charges under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) are yet to be included, since the deceased is a minor. The police have also reportedly stated that a 2022 graduate from JU Sourabh Chowdhury, who lived in the hostel illegally, was the main accused. He was also the first person to be arrested on August 11. According to the report, the other accused are Deepsekhar Dutta, Manotosh Ghosh, Md. Arif, Md. Asif Azmal, Ankan Sardar, Satyabrata Ra, former students Saptak Kamilya, Asit Sardar, Suman Naskar, Sk Nasim Akhtar, and Himanshu Karmakar.
Times of India also reported that the police have traced a WhatsApp group that was used by the accused to hamper the investigation. “It seems that the story concocted to be told to cops was finalized in this group that had 10 members, including alumni. A meeting of all board members was convened thereafter. The group was deleted the same night. We are in touch with the social media company to retrieve the chats,” a police officer had told ToI, adding that it pointed to a criminal conspiracy.
Apart from the police, the West Bengal Human Rights Commission (WBHRC), the University Grants Commission (UGC), the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), the state’s child rights body, a state fact-finding committee and two if the university’s internal committees are conducting individual probes. The WBHRC’s report was the first to have indicated that the death was a result of ragging. According to a report by the Times of India, JU has pleaded ignorance after the WBHRC released the initial report and refused to comment on the issue.