Jadavpur University students Expelled

Varsity expels ragging three
OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

Jadavpur University has expelled three students for ragging and barred them from seeking admission in any other institution for a year, making this the strongest penalty for any offence in its 53-year history.

The university’s executive council took the decision on Tuesday after several days of debating the anti-ragging committee’s recommendation to expel the engineering students for ragging five freshers.

The council, which is the university’s highest policy-making body, also upheld the anti-ragging committee’s suggestion to suspend one student for four semesters — or two years — and expel him from the hostel. As recommended by the panel, another student was expelled from the hostel for the same offence.

“The university has never before taken such a drastic step. On many occasions, students have been suspended for various offences, including ragging, but this is the first time that someone has been expelled for ragging or any other offence,” said pro vice-chancellor Siddhartha Dutta.

Five first-year students of engineering had lodged a complaint with the university’s anti-ragging squad on September 4, accusing six seniors of subjecting them to physical and mental abuse in the Block A-1 hostel.

A committee set up to probe the incident submitted its report to vice-chancellor P.N. Ghosh last week.

The panel suggested that three of the culprits be expelled and barred from taking admission in any other institution for a certain period of time. The report left it to the executive council to decide how long the students should be barred from seeking admission in any other institution.

While it endorsed all the recommendations, the executive council decided to institute a separate inquiry into the ragging victims’ flip-flop two days after lodging a complaint against six seniors.

The freshers had stunned everyone by claiming that the dean of students had forced them to sign a “false” complaint against their seniors.

“A section of council members demanded an inquiry to find out what had prompted the five first-year students to change their mind and lodge a complaint against the dean,” said a council member.

Pro vice-chancellor Dutta said the university would take a decision on how to go about the inquiry after the Puja holidays.

At last some positive action is being taken to wipe out the menace of ragging from institutes.
I would like to congratulate the council members for taking this FIRM action.
I do not believe what the freshers are now saying that they have been forced to make the complaint.
Rather, I feel it is the other way round.
The freshers have been cajoled and threatened by the seniors to change their minds so that action would not be taken against the culprits.
Let this be a precedent and a warning to senior students all over India.
RAGGING WILL NOT BE TOLERATED.