RU student asked to 'call his mother one last time' in ragging incident

A first-year student of Rajshahi University from the 2023-24 academic session has accused two students from the university's Marketing Department of mental harassment and abuse.

The victim, Mohammad Rocky, a student in the university's Philosophy Department, also claimed that they threatened to call a member of Shibir (the student wing of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami) to beat him to death and asked him to call his mother "one last time". 

The incident reportedly took place at the 'Biswas Mansion' student hostel in Binodpur's Lebubagan area, adjacent to the university, on Sunday night (22 September). 

The victim submitted a written complaint to the university's proctor office on Monday night (23 September), seeking protection.

The accused are Antor Biswas, a fourth-year student from the Marketing Department, and Nazmul Hasan Nabil, a student of the 2022-23 session from the same department.

In his complaint, Mohammad Rocky said, "I, Mohammad Rocky, was subjected to mental abuse and harassment from 11:45pm to almost 1:30am last Sunday. Two students from rooms 201 and 205 of the 'Bishwas Mansion' hostel came to my room at around 11:45pm. They immediately began asking me various uncomfortable questions, which left me mentally distressed."

He further added, "At one point, they said, 'We will take you to the guest room of the hall, and there, we will treat you well.'

"Then they told me to call my mother for the last time. 'Tell her you might never see her again, and if I have done anything wrong, forgive me,'" he said. 

In the complaint, the victim also mentioned, "At one point, they asked, 'Do you know how Abrar Fahad was killed?' I said, 'Yes, he was beaten to death.' They then asked, 'What will you do if we beat you the same way?' I remained silent after that."

He said they repeatedly urged him to go to the guest room of the hall. When I refused, they said, 'If you don't want to go, we will call Shibir to this hostel and get you beaten to death.' They then said, 'Your roommates will finish their semester finals on the 7th. On the night of the 8th, we will throw a party with you.' After that, they left the room around 1:30am. I now feel unsafe," the complaint added. 

When asked about the incident, Mohammad Rocky said, "I moved into the hostel last Friday. After moving in, I went to meet and introduce myself to everyone in the hostel. Later, on Sunday night, these two came to my room and threatened and harassed me in various ways. I couldn't sleep that night. I just hope this doesn't happen to anyone else." 

He also demanded exemplary punishment for the accused.

When the complaint was filed, assistant proctors Md Rafiqul Islam and Md  Nasir Uddin were present. 

They listened to the victim's description of the events and called the two accused students to the proctor office for questioning.

When asked about the allegations, Nazmul Hossain Nabil, one of the accused, said, "I was taken to the boy's room by a senior against my will. At one point, the senior was joking with Rocky, but I didn't influence anything. There was no mention of Shibir, beating, or abuse.

"However, we did mention the Abrar Fahad incident as an example, saying that ragging or fighting doesn't happen in Rajshahi University, and if it does, let us know. After that, we left the room. But he took the situation differently," he added. 

Antor Biswas, the other accused student, said, "We spoke to him very casually. But the way he's portraying it is not what happened. We did tell him to call his mother to establish a formal relationship. Our intention was to create a friendly bond with him, but we didn't expect things to escalate like this.

"The mention of Shibir is completely false. The Abrar Fahad example was used to explain that what happened with him was ragging, but what's happening with you isn't ragging," he added. 

Regarding the incident, University Proctor Professor Mahbubur Rahman said, "This is a very unfortunate incident. The way a new student was ragged is unacceptable. The university administration will ensure maximum punishment in this case.

"We will forward the complaint and the statements of the accused to their department. The departmental academic committee will prepare a recommendation, which will be submitted to the university's disciplinary committee. The disciplinary committee will then decide accordingly," he added. 

Upon hearing a brief description of the incident when the complaint was submitted, Vice-Chancellor Professor Saleh Hasan Naqib reassured the victim, and said, "There is nothing to fear. We are here. We will not tolerate such actions."