Rutgers University student told to ‘call his mother one last time’ after bullying incident

A first-year student of Rajshahi University of the academic session 2023-24 has accused two students of the marketing department of the university of mental harassment and abuse.

The victim, Mohammad Rocky, a student of 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 student hostel ‘Biswas Mansion’ in Lebubagan area of ​​Binodpur, adjacent to the university, on Sunday evening (September 22).

The victim filed a written complaint with the university’s proctor’s office on Monday evening (September 23), requesting protection.

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

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

He added: “At one point they said, ‘We’ll take you to the guest room down the hall, and there we’ll treat you well.’

“They then told me to call my mother one last time. Tell her that you may never see her again and that if I have done anything wrong, forgive me,” he said.

In her complaint, the victim also said: “At one point, they asked me, ‘Do you know how Abrar Fahad was killed?’ I replied, ‘Yes, he was beaten to death.’ They then asked me, ‘What will you do if we beat you in the same way?’ I remained silent after that.”

He said they repeatedly urged him to go to the guest room in the dormitory. When I refused, they said, “If you don’t want to go, we will call Shibir to this dormitory and have you beaten to death.” They then added, “Your roommates will finish their final semester exams on the 7th. On the evening of the 8th, we will have a party with you.” After that, they left the room at around 1:30 a.m. “I don’t feel safe now,” the complaint added.

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 lodged, assistant wardens 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 invigilator’s office for questioning.

Asked about the allegations, Nazmul Hossain Nabil, one of the accused, said: “I was taken to the boys’ room by a senior student against my will. At one point, the senior student was joking with Rocky, but I had no influence on him. There was no talk of Shibir, beatings or abuse.”

“We, however, mentioned the Abrar Fahad incident as an example, saying that fights or brawls did not take place in Rajshahi University, and if they did, they should 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 in a very casual manner. But the way he described things does not match what happened. We told him to call his mother to establish a formal relationship. Our intention was to create a friendly bond with him, but we did not expect things to escalate like this.”

“The mention of Shibir is completely false. The example of Abrar Fahad was used to explain that what happened to him was hazing, but what is happening to you is not hazing,” he added.

Commenting on the incident, Professor Mahbubur Rahman, the university’s proctor, said, “This is a very unfortunate incident. The way a new student was manhandled is unacceptable. The university administration will ensure that maximum punishment is meted out in this case.”

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

After hearing a brief description of the incident during the complaint, Vice Chancellor Professor Saleh Hasan Naqib reassured the victim and said: “There is nothing to fear. We are here. We will not tolerate such acts.”