JU students forced to rub face against wall, crawl under beds, finds committee probing ragging
Kolkata (PTI): First-year students at Jadavpur University who lived at the boys' hostel were allegedly made to rub their faces against the wall and stay atop almirahs indefinitely, found a committee formed by the varsity to investigate incidents of ragging on campus.
The committee was formed after the death of an under-graduate student on August 10, allegedly due to ragging on campus.
"They were forced to strip down to their undergarments, and then do activities like standing atop an almirah, rubbing one's face against the wall, 'frog-jumps' and crawl under the cots," said the report, which was prepared after hundreds of students living in the hostels were interviewed.
The freshers, who are referred to as 'bachcha' (kid), were forced to wash their seniors' clothes, write assignments for them and run errands, including getting liquor, cigarettes and food from nearby markets at late hours, it claimed.
The freshers were also forced to hurl expletives at female residents of the adjacent police quarters, and the punishment for refusal would include physical spanking, it added.
The first-year student had died after falling from the balcony of the boys' hostel. His family alleged that he was a victim of ragging.
The report claimed that what happened on that evening was not merely an isolated incident of ragging, but rather a regular practice.
"The spot of the accident was washed by a group of boarders with water, following the instruction of one of the seniors after the victim was rushed to the hospital in a yellow taxi at around midnight of August 9," it said.
"Information regarding the subsequent movements, just prior to his fatal fall, is rather uncertain and vague, as none of the witnesses gave a clear-cut description of the incident, which could help in ascertaining the cause and sequence of the mishap," it added.
The committee alleged that the victim was singled out for severe pre-planned ragging, which included possible sexual abuse.
Thirteen people, all former or current students, were arrested in connection with the case.
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
