Cop notice to 16 JU students - Suspects to be quizzed on girl’s harassment charge

MONALISA CHAUDHURI AND SUBHANKAR CHOWDHURY, TT, Calcutta, Sept. 23: Police today served a notice on at least 16 engineering students of Jadavpur University to face questioning on a charge of “outraging the modesty” of a student of another wing.

The current crisis at the university traces its roots to the way the molestation complaint by the girl had been handled.

The 16 students, all residents of the New Block hostel, will have to present themselves at Jadavpur police station by Wednesday and face interrogation, sources said.

Failure to turn up will legally strengthen the ground to arrest the students, the sources added.

An officer said the 16 students could be arrested even now because the charge against them was grave but the police wanted to give them the opportunity to make themselves available.

Initially, 13 students were on the list of suspects. They appeared before the university’s internal complaints committee today, other sources said.

On Monday, the police had sought details of 13 students from the superintendent of the hostel. Three more names were added to the list based on further investigation, the sources said.

The probe that had made little apparent progress in the past few weeks — only the victim’s statement had been recorded — has gathered pace all of a sudden as the government hopes to address the original demand that led to the student protest and police action last week.

Senior police officers interviewed the victim at an undisclosed location at Girish Park on Tuesday.

Sources close to the students said they were discussing the future course of action. After the big protest in support of the girl, it will be difficult for the students not to support the police action on the suspects.

A student leader from the arts faculty welcomed the move, though as an “individual”. “As an individual who has been part of the movement from day one, I think the police action (serving of notice) was an outcome of the sustained pressure mounted through the movement,” said Nabottoma Pal, a third-year student of international relations.

A section of the police said had the officers on the case been more pro-active, these students could have been identified and punished earlier.

“It’s apparent the students do not have anything against the police probing the molestation case. Instead they seem to be against the probe conducted by the internal complaints committee of the university. But timely action by either of the two bodies — the police or the committee — could have averted the student agitation,” said a retired IPS officer.

The alleged molestation had taken place on August 28, the last day of a four-day fest. The girl was allegedly dragged into the boys’ hostel by a group of boys and harassed.

The girl lodged the police complaint five days later, on September 2, after interim vice-chancellor Abhijit Chakrabarti sought time from her father to look into the complaint.

Another section of police officers said the primary delay in progressing with the probe was in verifying the names mentioned in the letter of complaint. “We had to cross-check every name before making any move against a student,” said an officer.

However, insiders revealed that the investigators wanted the girl to record her statement with a magistrate before proceeding with any formal action on the complaint.

“In cases where we gather multiple versions, we proceed after the victim records her statement before a magistrate because the victim’s statement to the police is not considered as evidence before the court,” said an officer in Lalbazar.

In an apparent attempt to show that the police were not moving against the students alone, they prayed before the court on Tuesday seeking dates to record statements of the 10 girls who had lodged complaints of molestation against police “and outsiders” during and after the gherao last Tuesday night.

The court granted dates for six of the 10 students who would record their statement before the magistrate under Section 164 of the CrPC. The process will start this week itself.