New Delhi: The University Grants Commission (UGC) has found unsatisfactory a second report submitted by Jadavpur University on the recent death of a first-year student, allegedly from ragging and sexual harassment.
UGC Chairman M. Jagadesh Kumar said Monday that the statutory body would seek another explanation on the death and details of action taken.
“Ragging is a serious issue and Jadavpur University must follow UGC regulations in letter and spirit to provide a safe environment for students,” Kumar said.
UGC had slammed the university’s first report on the death as “generic”, and said it lacked “specific details” on the steps taken by the varsity to curb cases of harassment and ragging,
The UGC then sought a second report from Jadavpur University which too has been found unsatisfactory, prompting the request for a third one.
Swapnadeep Kundu, 19, who was staying in the university’s main hostel, fell to his death on the night of 9 August from the building’s third floor balcony.
Two hours before he died, Kundu had allegedly called his mother in Nadia’s Bagula that he was “very scared” and pleaded with her to take him home.
The police have arrested twelve people in connection to the alleged ragging and sexual harassment of Kundu. Some of these students had graduated from the institution but stayed on in the hostel.
Meanwhile, the West Bengal government has formed a four-member, fact-finding committee to probe “certain administrative lapses and infrastructure gaps” in the prestigious university.
The state’s higher education department has taken a “serious view” of the incident, a notification said last Thursday, adding the committee would identify the lapses and ensure corrective measures. It will submit a report to the government within two weeks.
The death has renewed unresolved conversations around the brutality of hazing by seniors, the lack of security measures in the form of CCTVs and guards, and the administration’s alleged failure to clamp down on a problem that has been going on for years.
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