: Six more youths, including three former and three present students of Jadavpur University (JU), were arrested on the intervening night of Tuesday and Wednesday in connection with the death of Swapnodeep Kundu, a first-year undergraduate who allegedly fell victim to ragging.
The six arrested youths were produced at the Alipore Court and remanded to police custody for 12 days. According to sources, after the death of Swapnodeep on August 9 the three ex-students, identified as Saptak Kamilya, Asit Sardar and Suman Naskar, had fled the premises.
Police have found the involvement of three other students: Md. Arif and Ankan Sardar of third-year civil engineering, and Md. Asif Azmal of fourth-year electrical engineering. Among them, Ankan is learnt to have accompanied the group which took Swapnodeep to the hospital.
Sources informed that during ragging, all six of them were present in the room. Saptak is allegedly the key person who forced Swapnodeep to write the letter. The idea was conceived by Sourabh Chowdhury who was arrested earlier. After picking up the six youths on Tuesday night, police are learnt to have spotted ambiguities in their statements during interrogation. Police learnt that after Swapnodeep jumped, the former students held meetings, at least four, where others were allegedly briefed to give the same statements to prevent the police from suspecting any foul play.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, police summoned the Registrar of JU, Snehamanju Basu and Dean of Students, Rajat Ray at the Lalbazar for questioning. Though Basu appeared before the Joint Commissioner of Police (Jt. CP), Crime, Shankha Shubhra Chakrabarty, Ray skipped the meeting, claiming that he was ‘gheraoed’ by a group of students. Later, the police also summoned the general secretary of Jadavpur University Teachers’ Association (JUTA), Partha Pratim Ray at the Lalbazar. Ray reached Lalbazar in the evening. Basu left the police headquarters in the evening.