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 537 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 537 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).