New Delhi: The internal committee of Jadavpur University, which was constituted to look into incidents that led to the death of a 17-year-old student on the campus, has concluded that it was a result of an endemic ragging culture and failure on the part of authorities to check it.The report of the internal committee has noted that the student was made to run naked in front of fellow students, was labelled as “gay”, and was sexually abused before he allegedly fell off from the second floor of his hostel building leading to his death on August 10, Indian Express reported.The incident has sparked widespread outrage across the country, particularly in West Bengal. A total of 12 current and former students were arrested following a murder case filed by the police based on the complaint of the deceased student’s father.According to the university’s probe committee, 35 senior students and six alumni/unauthorised boarders were “involved in ragging” at the main hostel of the university. It identified four senior students and six former students as “main raggers” which led to the death of the first-year student.“From a close investigation of the issue, the committee is of the view that the victim was ragged in isolation (away from his batchmates) by a group of seniors and ex-students on the night of 9th August and was severely abused sexually too [as is evidently found him being paraded naked amidst a mob of seniors; and also vehemently protesting against being labelled a gay),” the committee’s report concluded.Also read: JU First Year Student’s ‘Ragging’ Death Draws Attention to Systemic Flaws and DiscriminationWhile noting it does not have “conclusive evidence” on how the student fell from the top floor, the committee, however, identified two possibilities: “A case of abetted incident” and “A case of homicide”. The committee cautioned that the identified possibilities should not be treated as “exhaustive”.The probe panel, in its report, provides a blow-by-blow account of what had happened before the student fatally fell from his hostel building on August 9. Around 7:30 pm that day, the victim was taken to Room No: 59 of the hostel’s A-2 block together with a few other ‘fresher’ students by seniors. They were then forced to shout “highly objectionable, sexist, and abusive lines” at the women residents of Police Quarters next to the hostel. The victim was pressured into falling in line by seniors after he initially refused to utter such language.The harassment by seniors, at this stage, “literally shattered” him and the deceased student broke into tears, the report notes.“The seniors further intimidated the victim by stating that police would take action against the victim for his utterances of such abusive words towards their quarters. At this point, the victim got very scared and started crying. Almost simultaneously, he felt a sheer bout of stomach pain and sat down clutching his abdomen. He was then given an antacid tablet by a senior, and then singularly led away by few seniors to another room…” the report read.The committee then goes on to add that the victim was sweating profusely due to mental stress around 8:20 pm when he was in the dining hall for dinner.Based on the students who deposed before the committee, it concluded that the victim was sweating profusely due to tremendous pressure from seniors, and that they were drinking heavily in his room. The committee also recorded statements of other students in the same hostel who smelled a strong odour of alcohol emanating from his room.While he was taken along with other first-year students on the same night, between 9 pm and 10:45 pm, to A-2 block for ragging, he was soon singled out for “severe ragging”, which, the committee notes, was carried out in a systematic and planned manner.“A few depositors (deponents) reported that they heard a howling noise from the second floor of the A-2 block. At past 11.30 pm, one of the depositors (deponents) reported to have heard a loud cry out (for help) by a single person from the second floor of the A-2 block.One of the boarders, on hearing the loud cry went sprinting to the second-floor corridor of A-2 block, and reported to have seen victim running in a completely naked state, and desperately trying to enter the toilet of the second floor of A-2 block, and then rushing into room no. 65. Even as the victim tried to close the door of room no. 65 from inside, seniors pushed open the door and pulled him out. Thereafter, he was reportedly offered a bottle of water, which he gulped a bit, and then threw the bottle at a senior, all the while standing stark naked in front of many seniors in the second-floor well-lit lobby, facing utter humiliation,” the report adds.The committee then goes on to add that the victim desperately ran in the corridor of the second floor of the A-2 block naked as around 20 seniors and alumni looked at him. “There was a large mob of seniors present there in both upper and lower staircases, thereby incidentally blocking any escape route for the hapless victim,” the committee notes.The panel, however, underlines that the information on how the victim fell to the ground from the top floor is “uncertain and vague”. “Information regarding the victim’s subsequent movements, just prior to his fatal fall, and eventual fall, is rather uncertain and vague, as none of the depositors (deponents) gave a clear-cut description of the ‘fall’ incident, which could help in ascertaining the cause and sequence of the mishap. Many have reported to have seen the victim run towards the end of the corridor with a senior following him, but thereafter, the depositors (deponents) seem to have lost sight of the ‘final fall’ due to one reason or the other…,” the report adds.After the student fell, the accused cleaned the blood stains with water and tried to suppress facts and remove evidence, the committee alleged. The senior students also called a number of meetings with hostellers in the aftermath of the incident to decide on the narrative they would present to the police and media, and that nobody would present any other version, the committee said in its report.The probe panel also said that hostel superintendents deposed before it alleging a number of instances when they were harassed by seniors and illegal boarders in the hostel. No action was taken by the university administration even after they had lodged a complaint against students who harassed them, the hostel superintendents told the probe committee.
