BLOG 14 - 'RAGGING" AND A COURT CASE

This particular narrative is about the 'ragging' case that 7 of us were involved in, where we had to stand trial in a Sessions Court. The trial dragged on for nearly three years.

Chapter 9

Now, back to my College days.

A few months into my First Year, we had our holidays, during which we could all go home> the ten days would always coincide with Durga Puja celebrations. We had to book / reserve our seats and could book only one month in advance, which normally led to a long queue for specific trains. So, we would go in a group and sleep on the pavement outside the Railway booking office, in Chowringhee, till the counters opened the next morning. Even this became a lark, as half of the group would go for the evening show and the other half for the night show, always keeping our places in the queue. So, my first vacation, although for only a week, was to Secunderabad.

I returned Dad’s Bentex watch to him at that time itself. After my Father’s demise, it was his wish that I take possession of it. That watch and a Parker 51 pen - with which he used to stylishly sign his office documents and write letters to me - are the mementos I prize most, left behind by a good man, who tried his utmost to give the best possible to his children, under tremendous adversity.

Chapter 10

MY SECOND, THIRD AND FOURTH YEARS

It was a roller coaster of a SECOND year. The highs as a responsible senior and the lows resulting from being a responsible senior.

‘Do unto others as you had been done by’ was the motto of quite a number of batch mates, who were waiting for the new crop of freshers to join, with almost sadistic glee. I was one of a smaller group of 2nd years who opposed ‘ragging’ and vowed to help the freshers as much as possible. This got me into an opposing position with quite a few of my batch mates, who hated my guts but could do nothing about it.

The freshers joined college. The next day they were taken to the workshop, to register as apprentices. Two Third Years, one of them a Cadet Captain (P.K.Biswas) and two Second Years were assigned the task of taking the 15 odd freshers to the main office of the Calcutta Port Commissioners workshop for the documentation. I was one of them, with P.K.Biswas leading. P.K.Biswas was also of my point of view and was against ragging. All went well till the group returned to the DMET Apprentices Lunch / Resting room. There, pandemonium prevailed for an hour, as groups of seniors pounced on the freshers, like lambs to the slaughter.

Somehow, we got them out of the clutches of these rabid seniors and brought them out, so that we could escort them back to the hostel, as the freshers needed to start their apprenticeship only the next day. No college bus was available, so I was put in charge of them to take them by town bus back to college. This was done to save them from the ragging that would have continued till the evening. I even paid everybody’s bus fare.

On disembarking, I assembled them in the corridor and told the scared group things will get only better. I explained the difference between ‘fun ragging’ – bray like a donkey, act like a monkey etc, ‘serious ragging’ – making the fresher do push ups, pull ups, run etc, without physically touching the person, and ‘sadistic ragging’, where the fresher was abused, his parents and family referred to in vile terms and physically assaulting the fresher. I told them that they had recourse to talking to the Cadet Captain of the Sadan if things got out of hand. I also told them of my first year experiences and how I overcame the urge to call it quits and return home. I told them I was available to them to sort out any issues, or just talk.

During this 2 hour period, I had been the focus of attention for this group, who raptly listened to everything I said.

In later years, when I individually met some of this group, quite a number of them told me that they took their inspiration from me to not quit, based on that short speech and the help that I gave them during the course of the next few months. As often as possible, when a fresher was being targeted by a sadistic group of seniors, I helped them out. An example would be by inserting myself into their midst and shouting to the fresher that he had not done some odd chore or other and chasing him away from there. Although I wasn’t the freshers’ Florence Nightingale, I did my best.

One of the freshers, a local boy, jumped ship and left the college premises on the first day itself. He went home crying to his mother. His father was a well known High Court lawyer, who filed a police complaint. An FIR was lodged. During subsequent months, police investigations took place, an Identification Parade was organised and seven of us were identified as the raggers.

To my horror and surprise, I was one of the seven. Goes to show that being kind to people does not always garner goodwill. I say this with sadness - two of the actual raggers - one a Second Year and another a Third Year - had ragged that boy till he was in a blue funk and got away from being 'identified' through some well orchestrated subterfuge, with their parents being local bigwigs and their influence in the Police Department.

One of life’s lessons “It is always the innocent who suffer”.

Anyway, a criminal case was filed and this dragged on for nearly 3 years. We were not arrested, no bail was set but we had to attend court on the days of the hearing on our own cognizance. The Magistrate filing the charges realised that this case was more of a hurt ego (on the part of the boy’s father) and tried to keep out charges that would send the case to Sessions Court, but the influence of the boy’s father made a difference.

Hence, we attended trial in a Sessions Court. Hearings took place, mostly postponements in order to harass us. Finally, in my Fourth year, we were acquitted of all charges, except a minor assault charge. We had to pay a fine of Rs. 200 each or spend 3 months in jail. The Sessions Judge, who was under tremendous pressure from various elements to convict us on all charges and send us to jail, was sympathetic towards us, called us after the pronouncement of sentence, spoke to us and told us that he had set the fine at Rs. 200, so that we have the right of appeal within a month. If the fine imposed had been less than Rs. 100, we could not have appealed.

He seemed to be a man of good foresight, for when we returned to College, we were called by the Director and Deputy Director and told that they were taking action to expel us, as we have been convicted in a criminal case. Although the College lawyer, who was also present, realised that we can go back to court and get the expulsion order nullified, the College authorities said they were going ahead and expelling us, the formal order to be issued in 2 days.

Back we went to our lawyer, who scoffed at the action by the College authorities, made us spend the night in his house to prevent any serving of the expulsion order, proceeded to file an appeal in High Court the next morning against the conviction and also asked the Court Clerk to ensure the appeal comes up only after a couple of years, by which rime we would have 'passed out'.

With a copy of the appeal, we went back to the College authorities and told them that they cannot expel us as the case was now sub judice and they would be in contempt of court if they expel us.

Four of the 7, who were one year senior to me, had already passed out and were waiting for the court case to end, so they can join a ship. They paid the fine pronto and disappeared. And then there were three. We three had to go back to College and face threats of expulsion.

Thus, my Final Year in College was spent in a high drama situation of Courts and threats of expulsion and filing appeals, with only four months to go to complete College.

Anyway, I survived and finished with College, after a colourful passing out parade.

Financially, it was a quite a struggle for my Father to manage my College fees and Lawyer’s fees. I used to get around Rs. 80 from my apprenticeship with Calcutta Port Commissioners, of which I would spend only around Rs. 30 and use the rest for paying at least part of the college fees and lawyer’s fees. My brother Ramamurthy, who was then in the army, also used to send money to me, which eased things considerably. Batch mates also helped with substantial contributions towards lawyer’s fees. Through my blog, I would like to thank them for their generosity during those terribly trying times.

Apart from the regular visits to different courts, I came to know a lot about courts, the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), how the justice system in India works, how ethical they (the trustees of law and order) are but also how vulnerable to manipulation.

My Second and Third years passed swiftly, with workshop, classes and courts. In spite of having been booked as an accused in a criminal case, in retrospect (50 years later) I did not seem to be very worried or afraid. All of us (the 7 accused) had a high degree of confidence in our lawyer, Mr. Chinta Haran Roy, a grizzled old veteran from East Bengal, who had a very good vocabulary and a flair for the dramatic. In spite of the fact that we were in the dock, it was fascinating to listen to the ebb and flow of arguments between the prosecutor and our lawyer - truly dramatic.

===== Blog 15 in a few days =====