Students of IISER Kolkata on Saturday demanded a probe against members of the institute’s anti-ragging committee, alleging that they failed to respond to the complaint research scholar Anamitra Roy had lodged in April before deciding to end his life on Thursday night.
The IISER students have called for the immediate dissolution of the anti-ragging committee and an apology from its members for what they described as negligence leading to Roy’s death.
They also demanded the formation of a special investigation team comprising external members and a student representative to investigate the death of the third-year PhD scholar who, they alleged, was subjected to repeated bullying and abuse by senior research scholar Sourabh Biswas, who enjoyed the protection of his supervisor, Anindita Bhadra.
The institute has now constituted a fact-finding committee with both external and internal members, including a representative from AIIMS Kalyani, and asked it to submit its report within seven days, sources said.
An IISER spokesperson refused to share details about the probe team.
Sources indicated that the Union human resource development ministry was also likely to send a fact-finding team.
On Saturday, students submitted a 16-point charter of demands, which included the creation of a disciplinary action committee for professors and staff members, an external panel to investigate alleged scientific misconduct in Biswas’s PhD thesis, as claimed by the deceased in his suicide post on Facebook, and a probe into the 2022 suicide of scholar Subhadip Roy.
Protests intensified on the campus on Saturday with students bringing Anamitra Roy’s body to the IISER research complex at Mohanpur after the autopsy at AIIMS Kalyani despite resistance from the authorities, who had called the police fearing a law-and-order problem.
“It is quite unfortunate that the director of students’ affairs (DOSA), who by his position is chairman of the anti-ragging committee, did not bother to take Roy’s complaint seriously at all. It is not just incompetence, but apathy, as the negligence allegations were not only against a senior scholar but also the supervisor, who happens to be his wife,” a senior research fellow said on condition of anonymity.
“The DOSA and anti-ragging committee chairman should have considered the Supreme Court order on ragging and lodged an FIR, reaching out to the student immediately after receiving the complaint,” another student weighed in.
According to a Supreme Court directive, an FIR must be filed for every ragging complaint, regardless of whether the victim or the institution is satisfied with the internal measures taken.
“Failure to file an FIR or deliberate delay by institutional authorities is considered culpable negligence,” a Calcutta-based lawyer said, adding that the apex court has also stressed the need for “exemplary and harsh punishments to deter future incidents”.
Ayan Banerjee, IISER Kolkata’s DOSA and the dean of international relations and outreach, declined to comment on Roy’s death, citing the ongoing police investigation.
A member of the anti-ragging committee, who spoke on condition of anonymity, claimed that Roy’s complaint did not explicitly mention “ragging”.
“There was no word like ragging in his complaint. So the allegations of ragging could not be justified. Nevertheless, the complaint was taken seriously and the supervisor was verbally advised to resolve the issue. Since the complaint was lodged in April and no further escalation was reported, it was presumed the matter was settled. Unfortunately, things were different, which was beyond our knowledge,” the member said.
Students and the victim’s family members rejected the explanation.
On Saturday, Roy’s cousin Hrishikesh Roy lodged a complaint at the Haringhata police station against Biswas and Bhadra, accusing them of abetting the suicide.
“Anamitra was severely bullied and mentally tortured by the duo. It is not a simple case of suicide. He clearly mentioned what led him to end his life,” Hrishikesh said.
A relative of the victim alleged that the IISER authorities were “trying to wash their hands of the matter by misinterpreting the situation and raising questions about Anamitra’s mental health while ignoring his complaint and failing to file an FIR”.
“Even if it is so, they never bothered to take care of his illness,” the relative said.
“The Supreme Court order makes it mandatory to file an FIR with the local police for every instance of ragging. In this case, the DOSA on behalf of the IISER was obligated to file it and could not rely solely on the supervisor’s observations. It is sheer negligence,” he added.
On Saturday, students staged a protest on campus with Roy’s mortal remains to demand justice and a change in the administration’s approach, expressing their loss of faith in the institute’s mental care and wellness centre.
Around 500 students gathered at the research complex to pay their last respects before Roy’s body was taken to his home at Shyamnagar’s Sahebbagan in North 24-Parganas.
Later in the afternoon, IISER Kolkata director Sunil Kumar Khare addressed the students at the Rabindranath Tagore auditorium, reportedly acknowledging “lapses” by the anti-ragging committee and extending full support totheir concerns.
He announced the dissolution of the anti-ragging committee and the formation of a new probe team comprising an officer not below the rank of director from another IISER or similar institute, along with a student representative. He also assured that the mental care and wellness centre would be reconstituted.
When contacted, Khare declined to elaborate, but said: “I am in a very tense situation”, before disconnecting the call.
Earlier in the day, an SFI delegation led by state committee secretary Debanjan De met the bereaved family at the Haringhata police station.
De called Roy’s death a case of “institutional negligence” and questioned the sincerity of the anti-ragging committee.
“It is shocking how the chairman of the committee did not even bother to summon the scholar personally and enquire about the allegations. Such lapses cannot be condoned,” he said.