Probe body found serious negligence of hall provost
Staff Reporter :
The probe body formed on the order of the High Court found serious negligence on the part of authorities of the university and the hall in the phenomenon of torturing and assaulting female student Phulpori at Islamic University in Kushtia.
The Provost and House Tutor have not taken any step to prevent the incident and the Proctor of the university has not taken any action even after receiving complaint from the victim, the probe committee said in the report.
Meanwhile, another probe committee formed by the university authorities has found involvement of six students including Sanjida Chowdhury Antora, Vice-President of the IU Chhatra League, in torturing and assaulting Phulpori. The five other students are— Tabassum Islam, Lima, Urmee, Muabia and Meem.
Deputy Attorney General Tushar Kanti Roy placed the probe reports before the HC bench of Justice JBM Hassan and Justice Razik-Al-Jalil during hearing of a writ petition on Tuesday. The bench fixed Wednesday (March 1) for passing order on the petition.
Following a writ petition the HC on February 16 ordered the Deputy Commissioner of Kushtia to form a probe body to investigate the complaint filed by a student of the Islamic University in Kushtia accusing two Chhatra League leaders of torturing her.
Kushtia DC was asked to form the probe body including an official of the administrative cadre, a judicial officer nominated by District Judge and an Associate Professor of the university. The committee was asked to submit a report in the HC within seven days of its formation.
Gazi Md Mohsin, a Supreme Court lawyer filed the writ petition on February 15 seeking High Court directives regarding the issue.
According to the complaint, on the first day of the first-year honours class for 2023-24 session on February 8, the victim started staying at the room of a resident student in Deshratna Sheikh Hasina Hall as no seat was allocated to her. At night, Tabassum in the dining room of the dormitory wanted to know who among the freshers were residing at the hall.
As the victim raised her hand, Tabassum became angry. She asked the victim why she didn’t inform her about the matter earlier. The Chhatra League activist also asked the victim to meet her in Sanjida’s room. But the student did not comply.
Around 10:00pm on February 11, Sanjida called the victim to the hall’s guest room. Sanjida along with Tabassum and several other Chhatra League activists tortured and assaulted her there until 3:30am, added the complaint.
The victim said she was assaulted and tortured by some Chhatra League leader and activists. The incident was filmed at one stage, she added. She was also threatened that she would be driven out of the hall and the video would be circulated if she told anyone about the torture.
