Five students suspended for one year over torturing Fulpari

Five students including expelled Bangladesh Chhatra League leader Sanjida Chowdhury have been suspended for one year by Islamic University for torturing fellow student Fulpari Khatun.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the university's student discipline committee on Saturday morning.

The university's proctor Shahadat Hossain confirmed the news to Prothom Alo.

The suspended students are - statistics department's Sanjida Chowdhury, finance and banking department's Tabbasum Islam, law department's Israt Jahan and Moabia Jahan and fine arts department's Halima Akhter.

Earlier, the university's finance department's first year student Fulpari Khatun lodged a complaint that on the night of 12 February she was held in a room at the Deshratno Shikh Hasina Hall and tortured for four and a half hours by Sanjida and her followers.

Later, she lodged complaints to four offices of the university, disclosing her ordeal.

As the issue reached the courtroom, the High Court ordered the university authorities to suspend the five BCL activists from all sorts of academic activities. It also ordered to suspend the provost of Deshratna Sheikh Hasina Hall, Shamsul Alam, immediately and allot a seat for Fulpori in the residential hall as per her choice.

At the same time, the superintendents of police (SPs) in Kushtia and Pabna, in addition to the university administration, were asked to ensure the safety of Fulpori. The five BCL activists were suspended from the hall afterwards.

Of the accused, Sanjida Chowdhury was the vice-president of BCL's IU unit. All the five were expelled from Chhatra League by the central committee of the student wing of the ruling party.