6 more held in connection with death of Jadavpur University student

Kolkata: The Kolkata Police arrested six more people in connection with its probe into the death of a first-year student of Jadavpur University, a senior officer said on Wednesday.

With these arrests, the city police apprehended a total of nine people in the case.

The Dean of Students and Registrar of JU were asked to meet Joint CP Crime on Wednesday at the Lalbazar, the Kolkata Police headquarters, the officer said.

The city police have taken cognisance of JU students' social media posts, including photographs, which suggest that there was an element of sexual harassment in the ragging of the deceased.

Three former students of the varsity are among the six held on Tuesday night during multiple operations conducted by teams of the city police, the officer said.

"We arrested them last night after they gave incoherent replies to our officers during questioning. It seems that they were actively involved in the death of the student. We will produce them in a court later in the day," he told PTI.

Earlier, the police had arrested three students of JU for their alleged involvement in ragging the 18-year-old undergraduate student who died last week after falling from the balcony of a hostel.

Of the six, two are third-year civil engineering students, and one is studying electrical engineering, he said.

Talking more about the arrests, the police officer said all the six were staying at the hostel and had allegedly fled from there after the death of the student.

"Three of the six students were staying at the hostel even after they passed out from the university. They fled soon after the first arrest was made," he said.

There was no CCTV camera at the hostel, which violates the standard norms, he said.

"We are also questioning others and have asked the Dean of Students and Registrar of JU to meet Joint CP Crime at the Lalbazar this evening," the officer told PTI.

The deceased was a resident of Bagula in Nadia district and an undergraduate student of Bengali (Honours).

He allegedly fell from the second-floor balcony of the main hostel around 11.45 pm on August 9 and died while undergoing treatment at a hospital the next day.

West Bengal Governor Dr CV Ananda Bose, who is also the chancellor of the JU, will hold a meeting around 5 pm on Wednesday to discuss the current situation at the university after the death of the student.

A delegation of the ruling Trinamool Congress led by state Education Minister Bratya Basu on Wednesday met the family of the deceased.