6 more held in Jadavpur University student death case

KOLKATA: The Kolkata Police arrested six more people in connection with its probe into the death of a first-year undergraduate student of Jadavpur University, taking the total number apprehended persons in this case to nine, a police officer said on Wednesday. A city court remanded the six – three current students and three former ones - to police custody till August 28. They were suspected to be involved in the alleged ragging and sexual molestation of the 17-year-old boy leading to his death after falling from a second-floor balcony of a hostel last week.

The police have taken cognisance of JU students' social media posts, including photographs, which suggest that there was an element of sexual harassment in the ragging of the deceased. The three former students of the university had been staying at the hostel illegally and fled Kolkata after the death of the Bengali department student, the officer said.

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"We arrested them (three ex-students) last night after they gave incoherent replies to our officers during questioning as multiple raids were conducted at different places in Purba Medinipur and South 24 Parganas districts where they had fled. It seems that they were actively involved in the death of the student," he told PTI. Of the three others, two are current third-year civil engineering students and one is studying electrical engineering, he said adding that they were boarders of the hostel.

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There was no CCTV camera at the hostel, which violates the standard norms, he said. Meanwhile, the Registrar of JU on Wednesday met Joint CP Crime on Wednesday at Lalbazar, the Kolkata Police headquarters. "The Dean of the students who was gheraoed by agitating students could not come. We have also summoned a functionary of the Jadavpur University Teachers’ Association to come to Lalbazar for questioning," he said.

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Earlier, the police arrested an ex-student and two current students of JU for their alleged involvement in ragging the undergraduate student who died on August 10, hours after falling from the balcony of a hostel. The deceased was a resident of Bagula in Nadia district and an undergraduate student of Bengali (Honours). He allegedly fell from the second-floor balcony of the main hostel around 11.45 pm on August 9 and died while undergoing treatment at a hospital the next day. A delegation of the ruling Trinamool Congress led by state Education Minister Bratya Basu on Wednesday met the family of the deceased.