WBHRC finds out hostel superintendent also tortured by students in JU; rights body starts probe

KOLKATA: Amid the hullabaloo over the death of a freshman student at Jadavpur University allegedly after being ragged and sexually harassed, a hostel superintendent there alleged that he had also been “tortured for an entire night” by boarders during a surprise visit two years ago, a WBHRC member said.

The superintendent told a team of the West Bengal Human Rights Commission (WBHRC) that the memory of the torture was still fresh in his mind and that is why he did not go to the hostel on the fateful August 9 night even after receiving information that some "trouble" was going on there.

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The WBHRC team has conducted a suo motu inquiry into the death of the 17-year-old boy on August 10 after falling from the second-floor balcony of the hostel the previous night. “The team wants to find out whether the human rights of the deceased and other students were violated or not, and whether the boarders are safe and secure in hostels. Based on the findings, the Commission will submit a report to the government with suitable recommendations,” WBHRC Chairperson Jyotirmay Bhattacharya told PTI. Initially, the Commission’s team was supposed to submit its report on Monday, but its investigations are still on.

The university authorities and the Kolkata Police Commissioner will submit their reports to the WBHRC on August 24, Bhattacharya said. The WBHRC team after speaking to various officials of the varsity and three roommates of the deceased has found out that junior students were not the only ones who were subjected to harassment.

“The team has found a number of lacunae during its inquiry and while recording statements of various people,” Additional Superintendent of Police & SP in-charge of WBHRC, Santi Das, told PTI. Various guidelines of the University Grants Commission (UGC) have not been followed at JU, she said. According to a member of the Commission’s team, a superintendent of the hostel claimed that he was once harassed and tortured throughout the night about two and a half years ago by hostel boarders. The superintendent told the team members that he had gone to a hostel on a surprise visit one night. However, the students tortured him throughout the night in the open air.