The Sunday Guardian: New Delhi:
Sunday, August 28, 2016.
The
Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) administration found more than 800 students
guilty of illegal activities such as impersonation, physical violence against
fellow students and security personnel, possessing and consuming alcohol, beer,
ganja (marijuana) etc, between 2010 and July 2016. The university earned more
than Rs 40 lakh from the students as penalty for these infractions during this
period.
While 527
students were found guilty of acts of indiscipline, an additional 300 were
found guilty of consuming and possessing liquor and ganja, according to
information provided by the JNU administration in reply to a Right to
Information (RTI) petition. Many of these 527 students involved in these
activities were found to be under the influence of alcohol. More than 250
(around 30%) of those penalised are girl students. The RTI reply names all the
students, lists the fines collected from them and in most cases lists the
time/year when these activities took place. The Sunday Guardian is not
disclosing the names of the students.
An MA first
year girl student of Ganga hostel was found guilty of demanding money on behalf
of the mess secretary from the supplier of fruits and vegetables for the
continuation of supplies at the hostel. She was fined Rs 5,000 for the act.
One student
was found guilty of overstaying in the hostel for 12 months without providing any
information to the competent authority. The administration fined him Rs 72,000.
One girl
student was found involved in ragging activities, for which she was penalised
Rs 6,000.
Another
student was found guilty of abusing and beating up a fellow student at the
Spanish Centre’s “thanksgiving party” on 7 November 2009.
The current
JNU students’ union (JNUSU) president Kanhaiya Kumar was found guilty of
misbehaving with an ex-student (female) and threatening her on 10 June 2015 on
his way to Poorvanchal hostel. He was penalised Rs 3,000 for this.
In one case,
a student of Periyar hostel was found guilty of availing hostel facilities
while in “full-time gainful employment” between November 2007 and February 2010
and was fined Rs 1.45 lakh for this.
A PhD student
of Mahanadi hostel was involved in a similar act and was fined Rs 1.93 lakh.
One PhD
student of Tapti hostel was found misbehaving with and blackmailing/harassing
the sister of a fellow student, for which he was penalised Rs 3,000 by the administration.
One girl
student of Koyna hostel was found guilty of “impersonation in JNU Entrance
Examination 2010-2011 for admission to 2nd year BA for admission to Korean”.
She was fined Rs 1,000.
On 21
November, an MPhil student of Periyar hostel was found lying in front of the
Sabarmati hostel’s warden’s flat at 1.30 am under the influence of alcohol.
On 4 March
2012, a girl student climbed up on top of the Paschimabad water tank at four in
the morning, for which she was fined Rs 1,000.
A PhD second
year student of Chandrabhaga hostel was fined Rs 5,000 for abusing and beating
the guard on duty on 1 August 2014.
A BA student
of Kaveri hostel was found guilty of consuming ganja along with his outsider
friends at the Kamal Complex Open Air Theatre on 30 August 2015 for which he
was fined Rs 3,000.
Another BA
student of Tapti hostel was penalised Rs 3,000 for consuming ganja along with
his friends at the Sutlej hostel on 14 November 2015. Some others were
penalised Rs 2,000 each for being part of the group that was consuming ganja in
that room.
An MA second
year girl student was fined Rs 4,000 for consuming alcohol with MA final year
students at a party in spite of the prohibition mentioned by the guard on duty
several times on 4 April midnight 2014.
As per
information provided by the JNU authorities to RTI activist Gopal Prasad, one
MA student of Mandavi hostel was found guilty of manhandling a guest faculty of
Linguistic Empowerment cell near the railway reservation office on 15 February 2015.
Another MA student of Sutlej hostel was penalised for forcefully taking the
keys from the security guard and letting an outsider access the Committee Room
of CHS/SSS, where the classes for JNU entrance examination are conducted,
without prior permission of the chairperson, on 10 May 2015.
The
petitioner had sought details of such incidents during 2010-16 and the action
taken by administration.
On 7 May 2015
there was an incident in which three students brutally beat up a fellow student
near Sabarmati tea stall, for which a penalty of Rs 5,000 each was imposed on
two of them, while one student was rusticated for six months.
One MA girl
student was found guilty of possessing a bottle of beer and a hukka along with
her outsider friend at PSR on 7 February night 2014.
A student of
BA was fined Rs 5,000 for being in a drunken state, hurling abuses publicly and
damaging the cars of the wardens of Tapti hostel, parked near the Warden Flats
on 19 January 2014 midnight.
On 28-29
January 2012, an MPhil student was found consuming champagne along with his
friends near the water tank behind Aravali guesthouse for which he was fined Rs
3,000.
On 12 January
2013, a PhD student of Kaveri hostel was found guilty of unruly behaviour,
abusive actions and language (both physical and oral), threatening trepidation
and thus causing nuisance, under the influence of alcohol in the Kaveri hostel,
for which he was fined Rs 5,000.
One MPhil/PhD
student was found guilty of betrayal and of being involved in an act of sexual
abuse of a complainant and of mentally harassing her, resulting in severe
trauma, for which he was rusticated for two semesters.
A PhD student
and an MA student were found guilty of slandering the character of a girl
student.
The RTI reply
mentions the action taken by the administration after the infamous 9 February
incident near Sabarmati hostel, in which some shouted anti-national slogans.
Accordingly, action has been taken against Anirban Bhattacharya, Syed Umar
Khalid, Mujeeb Gatto, Chintu Kumar, Rama Naga, Anant Prakash Narayan, Kanhaiya
Kumar, Saurabh Kumar Sharma and Draupadi Ghosh among many others.
Notably, JNU
students registered 35 complaints of sexual harassment on campus, as per the
“annual report 2014-2015” of GSCASH (Gender Sensitisation Committee against
Sexual Harassment).
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