On Wednesday, Kolkata Police who is investigating the case of death of the undergraduate student at Jadavpur University, revealed that the 17-year-old student was forced to run naked from one room to another in the hostel building before his death. The officials confirmed that he was ragged and ran from one room to another to hide before his unfortunate death.
The police have pieced together the sequence of events that took place at the JU Main Hostel on the evening of August 9 just before the 17-year-old’s tragic fall from the second-floor balcony of the four-story hostel structure led to his death.
Investigators claim they have proof of ragging against the 12 accused who have been arrested so far, and they believe that the 17-year-old student was “disrobed, bullied, and abused with homosexual slurs.”
Around 9 p.m. on August 9, the 17-year-old was called to Room No. 70, which is on the second floor, by his seniors, according to the police, who reconstructed the incident three times at the hostel building using information from the accused during questioning as well as hostel residents. The second-floor room number 68 was allotted to the newcomer. He was then instructed to proceed along the hallway on the second floor of the hostel building. He was supposedly stripped off by his superiors as he was moving.
The 17-year-old, who was now naked, walked to Room No. 65 and attempted to lock himself out but was unsuccessful. Senior students began pursuing him as he began to run between rooms on the second level, according to the police. The cops said that this went on until 11 p.m.
The deceased told other residents that he was not gay, police probing what provoked him to say so
Around 11.45 pm, he reportedly fell from the second-floor balcony of the hostel building, between Rooms 59 and 68. “We have prima facie evidence that he (the 17-year-old student) was ragged. He was asked to walk down the corridor and then disrobed. So far, the investigation has found that he ran from one room to another before he died,” said a police officer.
“Some residents of the hostel have said that the 17-year-old told them that he was not gay. What provoked him to say so is now the focus of our investigation,” the officer added.
However, the mystery surrounding the 17-year-old’s tragic fall from the hostel building’s second level remains unsolved.
13 people, all of whom are Jadavpur University students or alumni, have been arrested by police thus far in connection with the death. Twelve people—six current students and six alumni—have been apprehended on charges of murder and ragging, but a 2021 graduate has been detained on suspicion of impeding authorities from doing their job.
Despite reporting that the victim was a minor and forced to walk naked, police have not yet filed sexual assault charges against the accused persons under the POCSO Act (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act).
13 arrested accused identified
Sourabh Chowdhury, a 2022 graduate of the mathematics department, is the prime suspect, according to officials. On August 11, Chowdhury, who was living in the hostel illegally, was the first person arrested.
The others detained include Deepsekhar Dutta, a second-year Economics student; Manotosh Ghosh, a second-year Sociology student; Md. Arif, a third-year Civil Engineering student; Md. Asif Azmal, a fourth-year Electrical Engineering student; Ankan Sardar, a third-year Civil Engineering student; Satyabrata Rai, a fourth-year Computer Science student; former students Saptak Kamilya, Asit Sardar, Suman Naskar, Sk Nasim Akhtar, and Himanshu Karmakar.
“Nasim Akhtar and Monotosh shared Room No. 108 on the third floor, while Satyabrata Rai lived in Room No. 110 (third floor), and Arif in Room No. 74 (second floor). There was a dedicated room for these former students where they used to call freshers to introduce themselves,” the Police said.
Junior residents meanwhile informed to the police that there was no restriction on entry of the former students to the University.
Death of a student at the Jadavpur University
On 9th August, Swapnodeep Kundu, a Bachelor of Arts in Bengali student from Hanskhali in Nadia district, fell off the second floor of the hostel building at midnight. Swapnodeep was in room number 68 on the second floor of the A-2 block of Jadavpur University Main Hostel.
As students arrived at the scene after hearing a loud noise, they discovered Swapnodeep lying in a pool of blood. Swapnodeep was transferred to KPC Medical College for treatment, where he died on Thursday at 4:30 AM.
Ramprasad Kundu, the deceased’s father, filed a complaint saying that some of the hostel residents were responsible for his son’s murder. Following the complaint, investigations began and several arrests were made.