Jadavpur University student death: Bengal police reconstruct crime scene
The West Bengal police took one of the accused persons, who was arrested earlier, to the main hostel to reconstruct the crime scene
The West Bengal police on Friday reconstructed the crime scene to understand what exactly happened in the Jadavpur University hostel on the night of August 9, when a first-year student allegedly died by suicide after being mentally tortured and sexually harassed for more than two and a half hours.
On Friday, sleuths took one of the accused persons, who was arrested earlier, to the main hostel to reconstruct the crime scene. Officials said that more accused persons, who are now in custody, are likely to be taken to the hostel soon.
“One of the accused Saptak Kamilya, a former student of the university who was arrested on August 16, was taken to the hostel to reconstruct the crime scene,” said an officer.
Police have registered a murder case on the basis of a complaint lodged by the victim’s father and have arrested nine persons.
Cops have also started a suo moto case against some students, who allegedly stopped the police from entering the hostel that night.
Investigation has revealed that after the student allegedly died by suicide, a section of the hostelites held at least four general body meetings over the next 24 hours to decide on the version they would give to the police, media and university authorities.
Police had earlier said that during questioning, statements given by some of the accused persons seemed to be tutored.
Meanwhile, JU authorities said that an exhaustive report, comprising 31 PDF files, was mailed to the University Grants Commission (UGC) late on Thursday night.
“The UGC had raised 12 queries which we have tried to answer as far as we could. A detailed report was sent on Thursday night,” said JU registrar, Snehamanju Basu.
After the student’s death, UGC - the apex body for higher education in India - had sought a report from the university on August 13. UGC was, however, not satisfied with the report sent by the university and sought a more detailed report from the university on August 16.
The West Bengal Commission for Protection of Child Rights has also sought a report from JU as the victim was yet to attain the age of 18 years. He was supposed to turn 18 on October 31, this year.
Prompted by the JU student’s death, other institutions have also started to tighten their security in the university and hostel campuses.
“It has been decided that CCTV cameras would be installed in the university campus and all the 11 hostels. It was also decided that freshers would be accommodated in a separate hostel facility,” said AK Panigrahi, pro-vice chancellor of Burdwan University.
On Friday, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Congress and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPI(M) sent separate teams to Nadia district to meet the parents of the victim.
