College expels students, sacks staffer over campus 'stripping'

The authorities at a reputed north Kolkata college has expelled two of its students and sacked a non-teaching staff member in connection with an alleged stripping incident on campus.

The decision to dismiss the second-year students and the staffer was taken by St Paul's Cathedral College yesterday on the basis of report submitted by a seven-member committee that probed the incident, a spokesman said today.

A first-year student, who claimed to be a member of the Trinamool Congress Chhatra Parishad (TMCP) unit of the college, had alleged that he was "stripped naked" and "filmed" on the premises on May 17.

In the FIR, the student had named the two expelled students, the sacked non-teaching staff and another outsider.

The video clip of the incident, which went viral on social media, showed the student pleading for mercy even as he was forced to remove clothes in front of a group of people.

The college spokesman said the committee, consisting of faculty members, examined the footage of the incident before submitting its report to the authorities.

The panel also proposed measures to increase security on college premises, including installation of CCTV cameras and restricted entry after 5pm, he told reporters.

The report has been forwarded to the Higher Education Department of the state government, he added.

West Bengal Education Minister Partha Chatterjee had said on an earlier occasion that "strict action" would be taken against the accused in the case if the charges against them were proved.