First-year student dies at Jadavpur University; family alleges foul play

JU student found dead under mysterious circumstances; family alleges ragging. Univ forms 7-member committee to probe; police start investigation. Gov, State Gov & Raj Bhavan to share burden due to lack of full-time V-C. Students protest & Gov visits hostel. Similar incident at IIT Kharagpur in Oct 2022.

A first-year student of Jadavpur University was found dead under ‘mysterious circumstances’ at the university hostel on Thursday, August 10, 2023. Family members of the student have alleged foul play, including ragging.

The student, Swarnodip Kundu allegedly fell from the balcony of the second floor of the main hostel building and was declared dead when he was taken to nearby hospital. The student had secured admission in university’s Bengali Department and hailed from Bagula in Nadia district.

Father of the 18-year-old student, Ramprasad Kundu said that his son got admitted to the university on August 3 and since then the student was staying at the hostel. The father said that Swarnodip had made frantic calls to his mother on Wednesday and said that he was not feeling well. An uncle of the deceased student, who also said that Swarnodip had called his mother a number of times, alleged ragging. Both the father and uncle ruled out death by suicide.

Meanwhile, the university has formed a seven-member internal committee to probe the death of the student. “An internal committee be formed to enquire the extremely sad incident of Swarnodip Kundu, a student of UG-1, Bengali, last night at the main hostel with Professor Subenoy Chakraborty, Dean, Science as chairman”, the statement signed by the university Pro-Vice Chancellor Amitava Dutta said.

The committee which also has student union representatives has to submit its report to the university within 15 days. A university official said that police have started their own investigation in the matter. According to the police, the post mortem will give clues to the incident.

Civil rights organisations like Association for Protection of Democratic Rights said along with the university, the State government and Raj Bhavan will share the burden of the death of the student since the university does not have a full time Vice-Chancellor (V-C). Due to the tussle between the State government and Raj Bhavan on the issue of V-C appointment, none of the 31 State-run universities have full time Vice-Chancellors.

A section of students held protests in the university over the death of the student. Meanwhile, Governor C.V. Ananda Bose who is also Chancellor of the Jadavpur University visited the hostel on Thursday evening.