Clutching a cellphone, its shattered screen lighting up occasionally to reveal his son’s photograph, and a bag of case documents, the 56-year-old walks into the courtroom of the Calcutta High Court. He doesn’t sit on any of the benches, instead shuffles along to the far end, within earshot of the judges, craning his neck to listen every time the Bench passes on a direction to the lawyers.
Six months after his 17-year-old son died by suicide at Jadavpur University after being allegedly ragged by his seniors, he is a broken father, but is determined not to give up. “I can’t sleep properly, eat properly, my life is surrounded by lawyers, courts and papers. But I am not tired. I will keep coming back till I get justice,” he says, his hands clasped and his eyes clouded with tears.
What was the Jadavpur ragging case?
On the night of August 9, the 17-year-old fell to his death from the second-floor balcony of one of the hostel buildings in Jadavpur University. A police investigation revealed that minutes earlier, the boy was “disrobed, bullied and abused with homosexual slurs”.
As The Indian Express reported, based on the police investigation, around 9 pm on August 9, the 17-year-old was summoned from his room to another room on the second floor of the hostel building by his seniors, who then asked him to walk down the corridor. While he was walking, he was allegedly disrobed. In a bid to escape, the 17-year-old had run from one room to the other and tried to lock himself in one of these, but couldn’t as his seniors chased him. This continued till 11 pm. According to the investigators, the boy fell from the second-floor balcony of the building around 11.45 pm.
The Kolkata Police arrested 12 accused, six of them students at the university and the others former students who had continued to occupy the hostels. Police filed a case and charged the 12 accused under sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) and Section 305 of the IPC related to abetment to suicide of a minor, among other charges.
“We have evidence that he was sexually abused, forced to strip and the charges have been framed accordingly, ” said a police official.
‘My wife is mentally broken’
On Monday, February 19, the High Court assembled to hear a bail petition filed by one of the accused. But with the court pointing out that the accused cannot be released on bail when the investigation is at a preliminary stage, the defence side withdrew the application.
Minutes after the hearing concluded, the 56-year-old, wearing a stained T-shirt and trousers, sits down at a roadside shack outside the court complex for a cup of tea – his first of the day. He had woken up at 5 am, left his home in Nadia district at 7.30 am to be able to make it to Kolkata for the 10 a.m. hearing.
A clerk at a cooperative bank in Nadia, he says he makes these journeys at least twice a month – sometimes to the POCSO court that’s hearing the abetment to suicide case, sometimes to the Calcutta High Court for bail hearings.
After their son’s death, his wife, who worked as an anganwadi worker in Nadia, was “too shattered” to do field work and the state government gave her a desk job on compassionate grounds. She now works as an attendant in a hospital. “I want her to stay busy, but she is mentally broken. It’s a daily battle to push her to go to work everyday. I cry in the bathroom, sometimes when everyone is asleep,” he says.
“I have lost everything, my world is shattered… For everyone else, my son’s death was a topic of discussion for a few months, after which they have all forgotten about him. I am now left all alone fighting this battle. My wife is on anti-depressant pills. My younger son somehow managed to complete his Class 10 exams this month. But now I don’t want him to score great marks and see big dreams. I have paid a price for all that already. My son was a science student whose love for Bengali Literature brought him to Jadavpur. But then it all ended,” he says.
A few kilometres from the tea shack where the father sat hunched, at Jadavpur University, the uproar triggered by the 17-year-old’s death is now largely subdued. While CCTV cameras were installed at nine spots on the campus, there are still none in the hostel corridor where the 17-year-old was allegedly tortured.
It will be wrong to say ragging has stopped: VC
In his office in Jadavpur University, Interim Vice Chancellor Dr Buddhadeb Sau admits that he continues to receive complaints of ragging from students. “As per the UGC’s guidelines, after the incident, we even moved the freshers to a separate building, away from the seniors. But ragging happens in many forms – from something as serious as what happened in this case to seemingly innocuous ones, like a senior asking a junior to fetch something. In fact, you need separate buildings, year-wise, to tackle ragging and for that, you need a permanent VC, funds etc. I still receive complaints from junior students…If I say ragging has completely stopped in the university, it would be wrong,” Sau told The Indian Express.
Students’ Federation of India and other left student organisation supporters stage a protest against the death of the first-year student of Jadavpur University. (ANI)
Back in the courtroom, the father believes his son died to fulfil a larger purpose. His phone rings, the ring tune is a sloka from the Bhagwad Gita — Yada yada hi dharmasya glanirbhavati bharata/ Abhythanamadharmasya tadatmanam srijamyaham.
“This verse gives me the power to fight this battle. It means, whenever evil flourishes, God takes the human form to destroy it. This happens in every yuga… My son’s death was for a purpose – it will end the ragging culture in the institute. I will keep coming back to the courts to make sure that the accused get the highest level of punishment – not only for killing my son but for killing the dreams of so many other boys like him who move out of their homes to study.”
Six months after his 17-year-old son died by suicide at Jadavpur University after being allegedly ragged by his seniors, he is a broken father, but is determined not to give up. (Image: Suvajit Dey) 
Students’ Federation of India and other left student organisation supporters stage a protest against the death of the first-year student of Jadavpur University. (ANI)
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