‘Need to hear students’ opinions,’ says Calcutta HC over Jadavpur University death case

The Calcutta High Court on Monday refrained from passing any orders in the Jadavpur University death case before hearing the views of the students of the varsity. The court was hearing petitions seeking its intervention in the case of the death of a first-year student who fell from a hostel building on August 9 and died at a nearby hospital early morning the next day. The police have registered a case of murder and conspiracy and made 12 arrests so far, including current and former students living illegally on the campus. Senior Advocate and Trinamool Congress MP Kalyan Banerjee told the High Court that the university was quiet on the issue of ragging, believed to be the cause of the student’s death. “A boy fell from the hostel and was found naked in a pool of blood. The university did not lodge a FIR. Students who rushed him to the hospital did not lodge a complaint. It is the boy’s parents who rushed from Nadia, who lodged a complaint,” the court was informed. “The police went to the hostel, the gates of which were locked and the police personnel was stopped from entering. The police then received information that a taxi had gone to the hospital and then they also went to the hospital. Why have the students here become so violent? Shocking things are going on in the campus,” Banerjee added. The high court said students need to be heard in the matter. “We are only concerned with the university campus. If there is a recognized students’ union, they can be impleaded,” the court said. Kalyan Banerjee also informed the court that CCTV cameras were installed in 2012 and the students gheraoed the then Vice-Chancellor for 53 hours. “The V-C resigned. Another one came and he also resigned. In 2016, another V-C came, and he removed CCTV cameras. In 2016, a student died because of ragging,” Banerjee told the court. The court then asked, “Why did this VC do that?” To that, Kalyan Banerjee replied, “Maybe, he wanted to be popular with students.” When the Advocate General of the state was asked for his views, AG SN Mookerjee told the court, “Sadly, ragging has become endemic to institutions, particularly in engineering. It has gone beyond what one can call social interaction between seniors and juniors. It is not a situation where it has not been known that there have been excesses. Students themselves are not able to regulate and ensure peace and harmony there has to be intervention.” The Advocate General confirmed what Kalyan Banerjee had told the court earlier and said, “The police were prevented access to the hostel, and we have lodged a case.” When the court asked, “Who did it?” the Advocate General replied, “One of the students who did that was Joydip Ghosh says a report from the police.” The court also heard the lawyer appearing for Jadavpur University. “The university has been created by a statute. If the authorities say we are empowered and we are unable to implement, then we will have to think of other issues,” the court said Kalyan Banerjee also drew the attention of the court to an interview by a student to a digital news portal based out of Kolkata, NTT. “One student union leader has made a statement that university is my second home and if I have the right to smoke and drink in my home, why can I not do it on campus?” Kalyan Banerjee informed the court. The court also observed, “If the University is becoming famous for wrong reasons can the university not close down the hostel,” while discussing the issues of protests and inconvenience to the public. The case will now be heard on September 5. The BJP too has also moved the Calcutta High Court seeking an NIA probe into what has been going on at the university campus. BJP Leader Rajarshi Lahiri told NDTV, “We have prayed for intervention of NIA investigation because sometime in 2022 we already had seen that a Jadavpur University student was caught for Maoist links from Nadia. And the student who has been killed is also from Nadia.”