Death of JU Freshman: Ragging Pperpetrators employed selective approach in choosing victims

On August 10, a student enrolled in the Bengali honours program tragically passed away after falling from a students' hostel balcony. There are suspicions that he fell victim to a case of ragging.

Kolkata: Some students in Kolkata’s Jadavpur University adopted a ‘pick & choose’ policy to select victims for ragging in the name of introduction, the public prosecutor informed a lower court on Friday during the hearing of a matter related to the death of a fresher in the university hostel on August 10.

The first year student of Bengali honours died on August 10 after falling from the balcony of a students’ hostel. It is suspected that he became a victim of ragging.

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Public prosecutor Gopal Haldar also informed the court that former JU student and a prime accused in the case, Sourav Chowdhury, was instrumental in this ‘pick & choose’ policy.

However, the counsel of Chowdhury, the first to be arrested in this case, strongly opposed this line of argument by the public prosecutor.

“It is too early to reach such a conclusion,” he argued.

Since the beginning of the investigation, it has become clear that the victim, who had come to study in JU from a remote village in Nadia district, became a victim of psychological ragging and harassment from his first day at the students’ hostel, Haldar said.

As per the statements given by some of his hostelmates, because of his shy nature, the victim was not comfortable in his interaction with the female students of the university, as a result of which he was tagged as a ‘gay’.

He was even stripped off his clothes during ragging.

Other students at the hostel have told the investigating officers that a day before the unfortunate incident, the victim was frantically claiming that “I am not a gay”.

After hearing both sides, the judge extended the judicial custody of the accused till September 8.