JU students in judicial custody

The JU students (faces covered) at court. Picture by Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya

TT, Calcutta, Sept. 27: An Alipore court today sent two Jadavpur University students, arrested last evening for allegedly molesting a girl on the campus, to judicial custody till Monday.

Police opposed the students’ bail but did not seek their custody. Some lawyers said the move would send the message that the police had not been too harsh on the students, but at the same time would not leave room for allegations of going soft on the accused.

The police need the permission of a court to interrogate an accused in judicial custody, who is kept in jail, at an assigned time. A person sent to police custody is kept in Lalbazar or a police station and cops don’t require permission for questioning.

The lawyer appearing for the police in the molestation case told the Alipore acting chief judicial magistrate’s court that the cops did not need the JU students’ custody as there was no material evidence to be recovered after the initial rounds of questioning.

Sayak Chakraborty, one of the lawyers appearing for the two students, told the court: “It is strange that the police think they have more to know from the students but still did not seek their custody. We pray that the students be granted bail.”

The students’ lawyers said the police did not need to arrest the duo as they had gone to Lalbazar whenever they were summoned and had co-operated with investigators.

“There is no reason to fear that the students will abscond. An identification parade will be conducted. What was the need of arresting the students? Is arrest the only way of making the students appear for the parade when they already were co-operating with the investigators?” asked Vivek Sharma, another lawyer defending the students. The lawyers argued that the arrested duo had not been named in the FIR.

One of the two is in the third year of the civil engineering course, while the other is a second year student of mechanical engineering.

After the JU girl named the main accused, the police sent the name to the university to know about his whereabouts. The JU authorities, however, did not find the name in the list of current students. The police have asked JU to check records of students who passed out in the past five years. A friend of the girl had told the police that the main accused could be a former student.

Sourin Ghosal, the public prosecutor who sought the judicial custody of the arrested students, said the two were picked up because their faces resembled the sketches made by the police based on descriptions given by the complainant.

The two students stood with their heads bowed during the hearing today. They removed the cloths with which their faces were covered only after entering the courtroom.

“He sits beside me in class. It is painful to see my friend like this —being forced to walk with his face covered. I hope he comes out clean,” a mechanical engineering student said, referring to his classmate.

Around 30 JU students, including seven girls, were present in the court this afternoon. “The two have been falsely implicated. They are not even named in the FIR. This is an attempt by the police and the government to divide JU students so that they can break our movement,” said Jubi Saha, a postgraduate student of metallurgy.