TMC delegation visits deceased student’s home in Ranaghat

A five-member delegation comprising leaders of the Trinamool Congress visited the home of the deceased first-year student of Jadavpur University, Swapnodeep Kundu, assuring the family of justice by bringing the perpetrators to book.

The delegation comprised Bratya Basu, Shashi Panja, Chandrima Bhattacharya, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar and Saayoni Ghosh. They reached the residence of Swapnodeep in Ranaghat, Nadia. The TMC leaders conveyed their condolences to the family and assured the family of justice.

Bratya Basu told the media that they visited the family on the instructions of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. He raised questions about the ragging culture that allegedly prevails at Jadavpur University and held the Left-backed politics on the campus responsible for the incident.

Basu said: “The family is devastated and has now placed their trust in Mamata Banerjee for justice. She is monitoring the entire situation and has spoken with the family. We assured the family on behalf of the state administration that all necessary steps will be taken to book the offenders. The police have already arrested nine persons in connection with the incident.”

Bratya alleged that the “anarchy” prevailing in Jadavpur University, along with a culture of hooliganism, will have to be stopped. “Only the ones ragging can say which political ideology they believe in but what they did to an innocent boy who came to the city from a rural area to pursue his academic career cannot be forgiven” he said.

Asked why the recommendations suggested by the Raghavan Committee on anti-ragging could not be implemented in universities, Basu said that the order from the Supreme Court probably came in 2009.

“Whenever we tried to implement it, the university authorities backed off. The state government can make a notification, but the university authorities are responsible for implementing it,” he remarked.

Commenting on whether the state government could not have taken any action against universities that did not implement it, Basu said that as per the instructions of the chief minister Mamata Banerjee, the State Higher Education department always reposed its trust in the university authorities to maintain strict discipline on campus.