Probe committee on JU clashes reconstituted, additional judge added

Kolkata, Sep 2 (IANS) Jadavpur University (JU) had announced a reconstituted probe committee to investigate the untoward incident within the university campus on August 19 and 20 following clashes between the CPI-M’s students wing, Students Federation of India (SFI) and the BJP’s student wing Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).

A second former judge, besides the one who is already there, had been included in the said probe committee, the announcement for which was made on Tuesday evening.

According to a notification issued by the JU authorities, the three-member ‘Judicial Inquiry Commission’ will be led by the retired Calcutta High Court Justice Pranab Kumar Chatterjee.

In addition, former district and sessions judge, Samaresh Prasad Chowdhury has also been included as a new member in the said probe committee.

The third member of the committee is Director of the (Internal Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC) Presidency University, Soumendu Chattopadhyay. In addition, Sumanta Jana, a micro analyst from Jadavpur University, will be the presentation officer in the investigation process. Pranab Kumar Halder, Junior Superintendent of the JU’s Law Cell, will serve as the Secretary of the probe committee.

Earlier, the notification had announced the formation of a three-member judicial inquiry commission to investigate the JU clashes.

The chairman of that committee was retired Justice Pranab Kumar Chatterjee of the Calcutta High Court. The commission has already held a meeting.

In that meeting, the Chairman said that if the JU authorities would feel it is necessary, they would add more members to the said probe committee.

This time, former district and sessions judge Samaresh Prasad Chowdhury has been added to that committee. That is, there are now two former judges in the judicial section of the investigation committee.

The JU authorities decided to investigate after several untoward incidents occurred on the main campus of JU on August 19 and 20.

The judicial inquiry committee was formed to investigate the real cause of the incident, the related circumstances and how that situation arose.

On Tuesday, the Acting Vice-Chancellor of JU, Chiranjeev Bhattacharya, had issued a separate appeal to the students and to show restraint regarding wall writings, graffities and poster writing within the campus.

In his appeal, Bhattacharya had claimed that while freedom of expression would be maintained, the beauty, cleanliness and dignity of the walls and other structures within the university must be protected.

He also appealed for use of specific places within the campus for expressing opinions.

–IANS

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