JU expels five students for harassing woman on campus during Bangla New Year celebrations

Jahangirnagar University has expelled five of its students for life for harassing a woman on campus during Bengali New Year celebrations on Apr 14.

The decision was taken at a syndicate meeting on Saturday, said the university’s Registrar Abu Bakr Siddique.
 
“The five students, who had earlier been suspended, have now been expelled from the university for life,” he said.

A female student of the university had alleged of being sexually harassed on campus during the Pahela Baishakh celebrations on Apr 14.

The victim alleged that she and another male student were assaulted at the Chourangi intersection during the Pahela Baishakh festival.

She identified the assaulters as members of Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL), the ruling Awami League’s student affiliate.

She said they were returning to the residential hall after a programme of her department at the Botanical Garden.

Five students of Shaheed Salam-Barkat Hall stopped them at the Chourangi intersection, she said.

They tried to take her to a bush and beaten up her friend, she alleged.

Her friend said one of the assaulters pulled the saree the female student wore.

They left when the victims shouted out for help.

The BCL had expelled the five accused for the “sake of neutral investigation” after the university had suspended them.

On Saturday, the accused were expelled from the university for life.

They are – the university BCL working committee member and 42nd batch journalism student Nishat Imtiaz, Shaheed Salam-Barkat Hall unit publicity secretary and 42nd batch chemistry student Nafis Imtiaz, anthropology student Abdur Rahman Ifti, geology student ‘Rakib’, and history’s Nurul Kabir.