JU student’s death case: ‘We have got evidence of torture during probe’

Kolkata: Investigation into the mysterious death of first-year undergraduate Jadavpur University student Swapnodeep Kundu on Wednesday has more or less established the allegations of ragging levelled by the family members of the victim.

Sourabh Chowdhury, a former student of the university who was arrested in connection with the death case on Friday night was produced at Alipore Court on Saturday and was remanded to police custody till August 22.

While seeking police custody for Chowdhury, Chief Public Prosecutor Sourin Ghosal said: “We have got pieces of evidence of ‘torture’ during the investigation as we recorded the statement of several boarders of the hostel. The arrested person’s name has been embroiled and it is suspected that some more people are involved.”

Though Ghosal did not use the word ragging, however, his plea at the court hinted at the same. He appealed to the court that the police needs to reconstruct the incident for which the custody of Chowdhury is of prime importance.

“The mobile phone of the arrested person as well as the victim has been recovered. The call details are being examined. Blood-stained clothes have also been found. The involvement of more persons needs to be examined,” Ghosal added.

According to police sources, Chowdhury who hails from Chandrakona in West Midanpore had completed his postgraduation in maths from the university in 2022, and used to call the shots at the boys’ main hostel, and continued to stay there. It is learnt that Sourabh was among those who had rushed Swapnadeep to the private hospital where he died.

Chowdhury’s lawyer Arindam Das claimed before the court that his client is not a roommate or a friend of the victim. The two phone calls that were made on the fateful night were also not from Chow-dhury’s phone.

He demanded that the police should recover the mobile phones or the sim cards from where the calls were made. One of the calls was made to Swapnodeep’s mother in the evening when the former had said that he was ‘in fear of something’ and requested her to take him back home. The second call was made late at night when the caller told his family members that Swapnodeep had fallen from the second-floor balcony of the main hostel of the university.

The sleuths on Saturday recovered a diary from the main hostel of the university. “We are not sure that the diary was Swapnodeep’s. We will examine the handwriting through experts to ascertain. However, his father has informed that he had the habit of writing a diary,” an investigating officer on conditions of anonymity said.

The sleuths have learnt that a good number of pass-out students like Sourabh used to spend hours in the main hostel. The police are compiling a list of them by speaking with the boarders of the main hostel.