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Jadavpur University student death: ‘Tutored accounts’ of accused crumbling, say investigators
On Friday, three more people were arrested, taking the total number of arrests up to 12 people, of which six are present students.
Kolkata: Even as investigators are now focusing on reconstructing the crime scene the day the 17-year-old first year student allegedly jumped to his death after being ragged and harassed in Jadavpur University, they said that “tutored accounts” of the version of events by the accused students have started to crumble in the face of interrogation.
Read here: Last phone call home and warning ignored: The night of Jadavpur varsity tragedy
On Friday, three more people, including one current and two former students were arrested, taking the total number of arrests up to 12 people, of which six are present students. The three arrested on Friday were produced before court on Saturday and sent to police custody till August 31.
A senior police official investigating the case said that initially the versions of the accused had raised red flags because they were identical to each other, including the exact times of the version of events. This combined with the revelation that after the boy had allegedly jumped to his death from the second floor, a section of students had held at least four general body meetings in the hostel, had raised doubts.
“But the accused have been interrogated for hours separately, and have also been confronted with each other. Some of the tutored statements have begun to crumble, and they are not matching with each other. We are verifying and recording everything,” the officer said.
Kolkata Police commissioner Vineet Kumar Goyal interrogated some of the accused on Friday.
Police said that their focus was on the reconstruction of the version of events of the night of August 9, and while one student was taken to the hostel on Friday for this purpose, more will follow over the next few days to ensure that everything is corroborated. “We are trying to fix the role played by each one of the 12 accused during the ragging and obstructing the cops from entering the campus that night. For this reconstruction is being done,” said an officer.
A suo motu case, under sections 186 (Obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions) and 353 (Assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty) of the Indian Penal Code on August 12 , has also been filed against some unnamed students, for allegedly preventing the police from entering the hostel when they first arrived.
Meanwhile, JU authorities said that an exhaustive report, comprising 31 PDF files, was mailed to the University Grants Commission late on Thursday night.
“The UGC had raised 12 queries which we have tried to answer as far as we could. A detailed report was sent on Thursday night,” said Snehamanju Basu.
Read here: Jadavpur University student death: Bengal police reconstruct crime scene
After the student’s death UGC - the apex body for higher education in India - had sought a report from the university on August 13. UGC was, however, not satisfied with the report sent by the university which was found to be ‘generic’ in nature. The UGC sought a more detailed report from the university on August 16.
The West Bengal Commission for Protection of Child Rights has also sought a report from JU as the victim was yet to attain the age of 18 years. He was supposed to turn 18 on October 31, this year.
