Six students of Jadavpur University (JU), who were in connection with the tragic death of a fresher of the institute earlier this year, have been barred from entering the varsity campus for an indefinite period. The six accused are Deepsekhar Dutta (economics), Manotosh Ghosh (sociology), and Md Asif Afzal Ansari, Md Arif, Ankan Sarkar and Satyabrata Roy (all engineering students). All six of them are currently serving judicial custody at the Presidency Jail. The decision to bar the students from entering the university campus was taken at the last executive committee meeting of JU, according to the registrar of the university, Snehamanju Basu.
The executive council of the university, following several flip-flops on the punitive action against the number of students held accused in the alleged ragging and molestation charges in the lead-up to the fresher’s death, finally in a resolution decided to axe six students from entering the campus till they were acquitted by the court of law. Earlier 13 persons, including four students who were arrested allegedly in connection with the death of a fresher on the campus, had been singled out to face axe on entering the campus by the University’s executive council.
But following several deliberations on the alleged quantum of punishment to be meted out to the students, which also included the alumni, by the varsity authorities it revised its earlier decision and decided to axe six students, instead of four decided earlier, who would face ban from entering the campus. “The EC decided unanimously not to allow those students, who have been booked under POCSO (prevention of children from sexual offences) and sexual charges and are now in custody till their names are cleared,” said an official of the university.