'He's lecturing but can't find students involved?': Court fumes over Director's vague report in IIT Kharagpur death case

Kolkata: On Thursday, the Calcutta High Court criticised the director of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur for failing to act on a ragging complaint that was followed by the murder of a student on campus for the second time in recent weeks.

The court summoned the Director to the next hearing on 20 December after becoming enraged by the college’s vague report on the action taken after a ragging complaint was made by 23-year-old Faizan Ahmed from Tinsukia in Assam in February, months before his decomposing body was found in a hostel.

The court said, “This court notes that none of the above incidents have been addressed by the director in the report… The report of the Director seems to be thoroughly misleading if not an attempt to cover up.”

Further making fierce observations, the court questioned, “Have you indicated what action has been taken in the report? Why is the Director giving a lecture here? We asked your client to name the students. The court asked you to name the students involved. What have you done?”

To which, the lawyer appearing for IIT Kharagpur replied, “We could not identify the students.” Evidently, fuming court then said, “What is going on? Your client is playing with the court. Let the Director be present at the next hearing.”

The bench added, “He is lecturing but he cannot name or find students involved. What kind of director is he? Had IIT taken steps maybe after the February incident, maybe this would not have happened.”

IIT Kharagpur student death case

On 14 October, the body of Faizan Ahmed, who was a third-year mechanical engineering student, was found dead in a hostel room at the IIT institute located in Kharagpur, West Bengal. The police claimed that the student died by suicide.

However, his family alleged that he was pushed over the edge by ragging and that his complaints were unheard by the institute management. They said, “It was a clear case of murder.”

Earlier in a hearing three weeks ago, the court observed that the incident indeed appeared to be linked to ragging. Pulling up the institute’s management, the court asked for a report on action taken after the complaint was filed by Ahmed and whether the Supreme Court’s guidelines on ragging were followed.

While speaking to NDTV, advocate Ranajit Chatterjee said that the counsel for the IIT pretended that the Director was not aware of any name even though in the complaint, annexed to the report itself, there was mention of two specific students. The court has referred to the names in the order also. That was a cover-up in the first place.”

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