A few months after the death of a fresher student at Jadavpur University due to ragging, fresh allegations have come forward against a few seniors of the boys' main hostel.
The complaint was filed by a postgraduate student in the arts department of the university a week after the university barred the entry of six students who were allegedly involved in the incident that led to the death of the fresher in August.
The six were barred from entering the campus indefinitely, a report by PTI stated.
A senior faculty member said the PG student complained in a mail to the Dean of Arts that he was subjected to various kinds of mental torture and abuses after being tasked by the hostel mess committee with buying essentials from the local market over the size of fish and vegetables.
"I am not feeling safe as I am being subjected to physical gestures and cold glares by some boarders. Neither is it possible for me to carry on my study from outside. Please take me out of the particular block where I stay now and shift (me) to another hostel in the campus," the student added.
While speaking to PTI, JU officiating Vice-Chancellor Buddhadeb Sau said, "I have heard it (about the mail by the student). Let the convenor of the anti-ragging committee examine the matter.”
Expressing concern over the complaint, the Jadavpur University Teachers Association (JUTA) General Secretary Partha Pratim Roy called for speedy investigation by the university authorities and "prompt, effective steps to eliminate the menace of ragging".
Background
The incident of ragging and subsequent death of an undergraduate first-year Bengali student in the same hostel building at Jadavpur on August 9 this year sent a wave of shock across the university and state.
The fresher had fallen off a second-floor balcony of the JU Main Hostel on August 9 after alleged intensive ragging and died at a private hospital the next morning.
A total of 13 people, including six undergraduate students, have so far been arrested in connection with the incident.
The arrested also included postgraduate students and a PhD researcher.
The move to bar the six students from entering the institute was taken almost two months after the recommendation by the anti-ragging committee of the varsity.
All of them are seniors in various undergraduate disciplines and are currently in judicial custody in Presidency Jail, added PTI.
