Jadavpur University has uploaded on its website the names of six present and former students who have been barred from entering any of its campuses “until they are duly discharged from the allegations” of ragging leading to the death of a first-year student by the court.
A notice, signed by registrar Snehamanju Basu and uploaded on the JU site on Tuesday, names Nasim Akhtar, Himanshu Karmakar, Saptak Kamilya, Sourav Chowdhury, Asit Sardar and Suman Naskar, “against whom allegations (of ragging) have been brought and subsequently been kept in judicial custody”.
The notice says the names have been uploaded following a decision of the executive council, JU’s highest-decision-making body.
These six are among the 12 current and former students who were arrested in connection with the death of the first-year student in August and have been charged with abetment to suicide in the chargesheet filed by the police on October 19.
The other six — Dipankar Dutta, Manotosh Ghosh, Md Asif Afzal Ansari, Ankan Sarkar, Satyabrata Roy and Md Arif — are current students of JU. A circular issued by the registrar on November 24 had named the six and said the students “will not be allowed to enter the university campus including the hostels until they are discharged from all the allegations brought against them”.
JU’s officiating VC, Buddhadeb Sau, said: “The November 24 circular named six students. In Tuesday’s notice, we have named the other six.”
The first-year undergraduate student was allegedly ragged and thrown off a second-floor balcony of the JU Main Hostel on the night of August 9. He died early next morning in a hospital.
A JU official said: “The 12 students cannot be showcaused as they are behind bar. But the anti-ragging committee has recommended that some students (other than the 12) be rusticated for four semesters and permanently expelled from hostels because they were directly involved in a criminal conspiracy related to the ragging in the hostel on August 9. The university has yet to showcause them.”
The committee has also recommended that 25 students be rusticated for one semester and expelled from JU hostels permanently, and another 22 students be restricted from entering any JU hostel for at least two years.
When The Telegraph asked the VC why JU had not showcaused the students who are not in custody, Sau said: “Any decision on showcause can only be approved by the executive council.”
The council met on Monday “after being allowed by the education department”, but only to discuss the upcoming annual convocation.
