Five first-year students of Jadavpur University’s engineering faculty on Monday told the authorities that members of the institution’s anti-ragging committee had forced them to submit a “false” complaint against their seniors.

This unprecedented allegation came two days after the students had submitted a written complaint to the dean of students stating that six seniors had ragged them in the main hostel.

JU’s anti-ragging squad set up an inquiry committee immediately after Saturday’s complaint, but on Monday the victims put the probe team in the line of fire.

In a fresh complaint to vice-chancellor P.N. Ghosh, the five students — Niladri Shekhar Panda, Saddam Hussain, Sudipto Mohanty, Kamarul Sheikh and Sheikh Manjur Alam — alleged that they had been forced to sign Saturday’s complaint letter.

“We were all called by the dean of students on Saturday and told that he had heard we had been ragged in the hostel. We denied it. Later, we were called individually and threatened with strict action if we did not lodge a complaint of ragging against our seniors,” said Saddam, a student of production engineering.

The university authorities on Sunday lodged an FIR with Jadavpur police station against two senior students on the basis of the complaint that was allegedly “extracted” from the first-year students.

The ‘victims’ on Monday threatened to lodge a counter FIR against the dean of students for forcing them to accuse their seniors of ragging.

Rajat Ray, the dean of students, denied the allegation and insisted that all five freshers had been ragged by their seniors, who were now pressuring them to blame the authorities instead.

“The question of forcing the students to write a complaint against their seniors does not arise. Preliminary investigations have already revealed that the five students had been ragged,” said Ray.

Students of the engineering faculty are crying foul and alleging misuse of the anti-ragging policy by the university authorities.

“The authorities have been wanting to provide first-year students with separate hostel accommodation and we have been campaigning against it. Saturday’s incident is just a ploy by the authorities to strengthen their case for separate hostels,” said a third-year student of engineering.

The five first-year students on Monday said that on Friday night, room number 10 of the hostel’s Block A-1 had witnessed nothing more than a friendly get-together.

“We usually frequent our seniors’ rooms and on Friday after dinner we had gone to room number 10 seeking help to solve some math problems,” claimed Sudipto, a first year student of mechanical engineering department.

The faculty of engineering and technology students’ union (Fetsu) is controlled by anti-SFI lobby. According to the engineering students, the authorities want to separate the newcomers at the instance of the SFI.

Vice-chancellor Ghosh said on Monday that the probe into the ragging of five freshers was on.