Four arrested in ragging case

KOLKATA: Four senior students of Jalpaiguri Government College, who have been identified as prime culprits in the Jalpaiguri Government Engineering College ragging case that has rocked the state, have been summarily suspended and arrested.
This was said at a hurriedly called press conference by state Higher Education Minister Satyasadhan Chakraborty in Kolkata on Thursday.
First year student of Electronics and Telecommunications Sayandeep Bandopadhyay was severely beaten by second and fourth year boys of the college on Tuesday night, when he tried to escape from the room where freshers were being ragged.
His throat and whole body were slashed with knives, his fingers stamped on and his face punched at. Sayandeep was admitted to the Jalpaiguri Hospital but later released.
"Criminal procedure will start against them soon. In 2000, an anti-ragging law was enforced in the state and anyone who rags a fellow student or helps in ragging, will be punished. There are 17 others who were involved in the crime," Chakraborty said.
Director of Technical Education, Amalendu Bose was sent to the college to start investigations against these 17. "He also has to find out if the college authorities had taken proper action to prevent ragging," Chakraborty said.
On Wednesday morning Chakraborty asked the district magistrate of Jalpaiguri to send him a report. "He wrote back to say that the SDO Jalpaiguri Sadar and the DSP (headquarters) had investigated the case and have already arrested the culprits," Chakraborty said.
Of those arrested, one was a former general secretary of the students'' union. "If the charges are proved against these boys they will be rusticated," Chakraborty said.
Expressing his shock at the incident Chakraborty said that despite having an anti-ragging committee, "such a shameful incident happened inside the college campus."
Speaking to TNN, state Higher Education Secretary, Jahar Sarkar said, "there is no use for the committees to meet in the mornings. We have asked the committees of every traditional engineering and medical colleges of the state to keep a stricter vigil during the night."
"Since 2000 very few such cases in the state. Earlier, one such case in IIT Kharagpur and another at BE College Shibpur, had similarly rocked the state. But still I would say that the incidents of ragging here are fewer compared to other states," Chakraborty said, adding that this was the only state where a law existed.
Sayandeep has left the college with his father and is headed home. According to the minister, Sayandeep''s father has left a note with the college principal saying that he was taking his son home.
"The note does not say if Sayandeep will not return to the college. I will assure him that he can safely go back to studies. He is a bright student who had to work extremely hard to secure an engineering seat. I will not let him waste his career," Chakraborty said.