Kolkata Police on Wednesday arrested two former Jadavpur University (JU) students in connection with the mysterious death of a fresher in the students’ hostel on August 10, taking the total number of people currently in custody to nine.
The two former students were identified as Saptak Kamilya and Suman Nashkar. Earlier in the day, the investigating officials arrested one former and three current students of JU after night-long interrogation. With the arrests, the total number of detainees goes up to nine. On Wednesday, the apprehended individuals were presented in Alipore court, and the police requested 14 days of police custody.
The magistrate granted 12 days of police remand. The arrested individuals have been identified as Mohammad Arif, a resident of Jammu and a third-year civil engineering student at Jadavpur University; Asif Afzal Ansari, a fourthyear electrical engineering student from Jadavpur; Ankan Sarkar, a third-year civil engineering student from North 24-Parganas and Asit Sardar, a former Sanskrit student from Jadavpur.
Asit, Saptak, and Suman were apprehended from different locations by the police on Tuesday. They were arrested at Kulti, Egra and Mandir Bazar police stations, respectively. The three had reportedly left Kolkata after the incident. The police have also questioned Snehamanju Basu, the registrar of Jadavpur University at the police headquarters, Lalbazar.
However, Rajat Roy, the dean of students, who was also summoned, expressed inability to be present at Lalbazar citing reasons of being besieged by students at JU. Further investigations are underway and the police are looking into whether any new names emerge during the interrogation of the arrested individuals. In a separate incident, 20 students who had graduated from the university but were still residing in the hostels, have been detained for questioning.
The investigation also includes examining their mobile phones for any relevant information. The tragic incident involving the death of a Jadavpur University student had previously led to the arrest of three individuals – Deepshekhar Dutta, Manotosh Ghosh, and Saurabh Choudhury, who are current students or alumni of the university. The investigators are also focusing on their mobile phones to gather any potential evidence. Governor CV Ananda Bose called an emergency meeting of the Jadavpur University court. The meeting was held at Raj Bhavan around 5 pm today and representatives from 34 departments at JU visited the Governor House to find a solution to stop ragging.
The Governor, who is also the chancellor of the University, said yesterday that the action plan is ready and will be implemented soon. When asked about the absence of the vice-chancellor, the governor said, “If there is darkness, there is light.”