Four arrested in BHU student torture case

For Ajeet Upadhyay,a polio-stricken BCom student from Bihar’s Buxar,the trouble started last September after he and 20 others from Dr Iqbal Narayan Gurtu Hostel complained about the quality of food to warden GCR Jaiswal. Consequently,Anuj Lal,a BCom third-year student who was the mess manager,was removed .

A month later,Upadhyay’s classmate Mohit Shukla,who was also a signatory to the complaint,took him to a friend’s house in Bhogabeer Colony. “I was taken to the terrace,stripped to my underwear and beaten up by about 20 persons who had their faces covered. Then I was blindfolded and taken to a place I don’t know,” Upadhyay recalled. “There,I was stripped even of my underwear and subjected to abuse. Ashish Gautam,who had accompanied us,made a video of the episode. After beating me up,they left me in front of Kamdhenu Apartment in Lanka. With help from locals,I went to Buxar.”

After 15 days,when Upadhyay returned,he found the video of his humiliation circulating as an MMS. Unable to bear it,he went home again. On February 22,he returned to take his belongings from the hostel. “I was in no mood to study in Varanasi,” he said. “But that day,Shukla and another boy saw me and started beating me. Luckily,warden Jaiswal arrived and asked me to complain to Dean of Commerce,Prof Bishwambhar Jha. I submitted an application to Jaiswal on February 22 and to Jha on March 18,but Jha said it is a six-month-old issue and I should let sleeping dogs lie.”

Admitting that he received Upadhyay’s complaint,Jha however,refused to say why he took no action. Since Upadhyay did not have the minimum required attendance,he could not sit for the examination. When he returned for admission the next session,the dean refused to allot him a hostel berth. In the last week of August,he wrote to the university’s anti-ragging squad,but no action was taken for lack of evidence. Mohit Shukla and others,however,got to know about the complaint and began threatening him. Then Upadhyay managed to get hold of the MMS and presented it as evidence before G S Yadav,head of the anti-ragging squad on September 14. Jha and Deputy Chief Proctor OP Rai called Upadhyay and advised him to compromise,“but I refused”.

The next day,he was called to the Proctor’s Office and told that he would be given hostel accommodation if he forgave the culprits. “I was made to sign a letter saying that I was satisfied by the action taken by the Chief Proctor,” said Upadhyay.

The story,meanwhile hit the headlines and the police swung into action. On Thursday night,Upadhyay lodged an FIR against Mohit Shukla,Girijesh Tiwari,Ashish Gautam,Anuj Lal,Raghav Alok and Rajak Anand under Section 323 (causing hurt) ,342 (wrongful confinement),392 (robbery),294 (obscene acts),504 (intentional insult) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC and the Anti-Ragging Act. Shukla,Tiwari,Gautam and Lal were arrested.

“Shukla and Tiwari are students of BCom final year and Lal has joined LLB,” said D K Thakur,DIG,Varanasi. “Gautam is MBA first semester student in BHU. Alok and Anand have graduated and left the state.”