Jadavpur University student death | Was disrobed, he ran from one room to another to hide before death: Police piece together events of fateful night

According to the investigators, who say they have evidence of ragging against the 12 accused arrested so far, the 17-year-old student was “disrobed, bullied and abused with homosexual slurs”.

Police, which reconstructed the incident at the hostel building on three occasions based on the information from the accused during interrogation as well as the residents of the hostel, say that around 9 pm on August 9, the 17-year-old was summoned to Room No. 70 – on the second floor — by his seniors. The fresher lived in Room No. 68 on the second floor. He was then asked to walk down the corridor of the second floor of the hostel building. While he was walking, he was allegedly disrobed by his seniors. To escape, the 17-year-old, now naked, first went to Room No. 65 and tried to lock himself, but couldn’t. He then started running from one room to another on the second floor as senior students chased him, according to the police. This continued, according to the police, till 11 pm.

He fell from the second-floor balcony of the hostel building, between Room No. 59 and 68, around 11.45 pm, according to the investigators.

“We have prima facie evidence that he (the 17-year-old student) was ragged. He was asked to walk down the corridor, and then disrobed. So far, the investigation has found that he ran from one room to another before he died,” said a police officer involved in the investigation.

“Some residents of the hostel have said that the 17-year-old told them that he was not gay. What provoked him to say so is now the focus of our investigation,” a senior police officer monitoring the investigation told The Indian Express.

The investigators have, however, not been able to figure out how the 17-year-old ended up falling from the second floor of the hostel building.

So far, police have arrested 13 people, all current students or former students of Jadavpur University, in connection with the death. While 12 – six current students and six former students — been booked for murder and ragging, a 2021 graduate has been booked for allegedly obstructing police from carrying out their duty.

Police are yet to slap the sexual assault charges under the POCSO Act (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act) against the arrested accused despite having claimed that he was a minor and made to walk naked.

According to police, Sourabh Chowdhury, a 2022 graduate from Mathematics Department, is the main accused. Chowdhury, who lived in the hostel illegally, was the first to be arrested on August 11.

The others arrested include Deepsekhar Dutta, a second-year Economics student; Manotosh Ghosh, a second-year Sociology student; Md. Arif, a third-year Civil Engineering student; Md. Asif Azmal, a fourth-year Electrical Engineering student; Ankan Sardar, a third-year Civil Engineering student; Satyabrata Rai, a fourth year Computer Science student; former students Saptak Kamilya, Asit Sardar, Suman Naskar, Sk Nasim Akhtar, and Himanshu Karmakar.

According to the police, Nasim Akhtar and Monotosh shared Room No. 108 on the third floor, while Satyabrata Rai lived in Room No. 110 (third floor), and Arif in Room No. 74 (second floor). “There was a dedicated room for these former students where they used to call freshers to introduce themselves,” said a police officer.

According to a hostel resident, several students, who after passing out from the university, continue to occupy the hostel rooms. “They are powerful. There are no restrictions on their entry into the hostel,” the junior resident said.