Initial post-mortem report has revealed that Jadavpur University student Anamika Mondal died by drowning in water. However, the initial report does not clarify whether the third-year English honours student was drunk or not. As a result, the question of whether it was an accident or murder is also being raised.
Body of a third-year undergraduate student of English was recovered at Kolkata’s Jadavpur University’s (JU) Gate No. 4 on Thursday night. The deceased has been identified as Anamika Mondal, a resident of North 24-Parganas district of West Bengal.
How did the student drown in a shallow lake?
As per initial autopsy report, it is known that Anamika died by drowning. No signs of injury were found on the body. But the depth of the lake in which the student fell is 4 to 5 feet. As a result, questions arise how she could drown and die in such a shallow waterbody.
However, doctors say that death by drowning does not depend on depth of waterbody in many cases. Death can occur if a person’s nose and mouth are under water for a certain period of time. Police are waiting for viscera report of the deceased to understand whether she was drunk or not.
Was Anamika drunk?
Friends of the deceased Anamika Mondal have revealed to the police during interrogation that the deceased had consumed alcohol shortly before her death. According to the investigators, students have said that a cultural programme was going on at the campus on Thursday evening. After some time Anamika and her 4-5 friends sat by the lake and drank alcohol together. After that, the group expressed their desire to get into the water.
Anamika got into the water by choice?
Friends of the deceased student reportedly told the police that Anamika had said, ‘It feels hot, I want to get into the water.’ Her friends knew that she did not know how to swim. So naturally they tried to stop her. But since the water in the lake was not deep, no one feared such a big danger. Suddenly, Anamika got into the lake. In her drunken state, the friends understood that she was drowning.
During the interrogation, the friends of the deceased claimed that they immediately got into the water to save Anamika. By the time they could reach Anamika, she had become unconscious. Not knowing what to do, the students screamed and called out for help.
Students present on campus saw her floating in the pond at around 10:20 pm. The security guards were informed. Anamika was immediately taken to the hospital, where the doctors declared her dead.
Lack of adequate CCTV cameras on JU campus
There are three CCTV cameras in front of gate number four of Jadavpur University. However, there is no camera facing the pond from which the student was rescued. Hence there is no proof of the claim made by the deceased’s friends that she had got into the water by choice.
After the incident, the university authorities have admitted that the number of security guards on the campus is less. However, Jadavpur University Vice-Chancellor Amitabh Dutta said that the musical programme was not scheduled to continue till Thursday night. He also expressed doubts about whether the incident took place during the programme or not.
The debate over security at Jadavpur University has been going on for a long time. The authorities took some action after a first-year student of the Bengali department died after falling from the balcony of the main hostel in 2023. Many additional CCTV cameras were installed on the campus after that incident.