Khulna University Punishes 30 Students over Ragging and Assault, Expels 10

Khulna University has taken disciplinary action against 30 students from various disciplines over incidents of ragging, assault, harassment and drug use. Ten of them have been expelled for one to two terms.

Alongside the expulsions, the others have been fined, and in several cases parents have been required to give undertakings, the administration said.

The decisions were taken on Tuesday (27 October) at 4pm at the 28th meeting of the university's disciplinary board, after reviewing reports of the relevant investigation committees.

The punishments were announced on Wednesday (28 October) in a notice signed by Professor Dr Md Salauddin, director of student affairs and member-secretary of the disciplinary board.

According to the notice, over the harassment of six students at the cafeteria premises on 29 July last year, Md Fardin Ahmed Dipon of the Forestry and Wood Technology discipline and Sheikh Amir Mahdin and Sheikh Mursalin Rahman of the Development Studies discipline were each fined Tk 20,000.

On 6 May this year, 12 students of the 26th batch of Forestry and Wood Technology were ragged by students of the 25th batch of the same discipline. Over that incident, Pranay Kumar Ghosh was expelled for two terms and fined Tk 15,000, while Md Jubayer Hossain was expelled for one term and fined Tk 5,000. Asim Das, Tawfiq Mahinul Ahsan and Abdullah Al Sifat were each fined Tk 15,000, and Swapan Kumar Das, Debashish Mondal and Sajal Pal were each fined Tk 5,000.

On 12 May, Md Amanullah Aman, a student of the 24th batch of the Law discipline, was allegedly beaten indiscriminately by about 25 students of the Forestry and Wood Technology discipline. Biswajit Chakraborty was expelled for two terms over that incident. Sudip Kumar Nandi, Mahmudur Rahman, Hemendra Mridha, Asif Adnan, Azizil Islam Kaffi, Sheikh Tajbid Islam, Rakib Hossain and Pranay Kumar Ghosh were each fined Tk 20,000 over the same incident.

On 14 August, between 9pm and midnight, several 25th-batch students of Development Studies allegedly forced 26th-batch students to come to a residential house on Nayan Road beside Hall Road. Mushfiqul Haque Mahid was expelled for two terms and fined Tk 15,000 over that incident. Md Maruf Sarwar was expelled for one term and fined Tk 15,000, while Md Mishon Rahman and Md Khairul Islam were each expelled for one term and fined Tk 10,000. Saidis Salehin Swapnil, Ritwik Karmakar, Sourav Chandra Barman and Ragib Shahriar were each fined Tk 25,000 over the same incident.

Separately, on 30 September at 7pm, during a routine patrol by assistant directors of student affairs, three students of the Mass Communication and Journalism discipline were detained with cannabis on the second floor of the under-construction Academic Building No. 4 on campus. SM Toufiq Alam was expelled for two terms and fined Tk 20,000 over that incident. Mushfiq Ul Islam was expelled for one term and fined Tk 10,000, and Kazi Riazus Salehin was expelled for one term and fined Tk 15,000.