Seven MBBS students at a medical college in Uttarakhand’s Srinagar have been suspended for three months for allegedly ragging their juniors.
The incident happened on 11 November at the hostel of Vir Chandra Singh Garhwali Government Institute of Medical Science and Research.
College principal Chandramohan Singh Rawat said the seven MBBS students – five of the 2019 batch and two of the 2020 batch – were suspended from academic activities for three months after being found guilty by the panel of inquiry of ragging their juniors.
According to a complaint filed by one of the victims with the National Medical Commission, the seven senior students allegedly abused the juniors and forced them to strip on the hostel roof.
A panel was set up the following day by the institute authorities to look into the matter.
They were also permanently evicted from the college hostel, Rawat said.
If there is a reiteration of the incident, the suspension will be for the entire session, he said.
While in Hyderabad, eight students of a business school were arrested in connection with an alleged incident of ragging, including a student being beaten up, which assumed a communal colour after a video of it had gone viral.
While five were arrested earlier, three were arrested and sent to jail on Monday, police said.
Efforts were on to nab two more accused students.
In the same case, nine members of the school’s administration have been booked for their alleged inaction in responding to the incident, police said.
The issue began when a woman student took exception to certain comments made by the victim student during a social media chat last month and informed some friends, they said.
Some of these friends allegedly went to the victim student’s room on 1 November and beat him up. He had complained to the institute management on the matter and later e-mailed to some government officials and others.
He had later complained to the police and a case under the ragging act and under relevant sections of law was registered.
Meanwhile, the issue got a communal colour when a purported video of the incident had gone viral in which some religious slogans were made.
Police, however, said the accused students belong to different religions and not just one.
Elsewhere in Kolkata, on 11 November 2022, the Calcutta High Court, hearing a petition over the unnatural death of a student, had asked the IIT Kharagpur director to submit a report before it on steps taken by the institute’s management and wardens on receiving information of ragging in its hostel.
The body of Faizan Ahmed was found in his hostel room at the institute on 14 October.
Taking a stern view of the allegations, the court on Thursday directed that the students involved in the “ragging” be named by the director in his report and asked the authorities of the country’s first IIT to “extend all cooperation” to the police in the investigation into the death of the third year student.
“This court is interested to know as to what steps have been taken by the said wardens and the management of the IIT, Kharagpur after receipt of information of what appears to this court to be a clear case of ‘ragging’,” Justice Rajasekhar Mantha said.
Justice Mantha also asked the Paschim Medinipur district additional superintendent of police, who was present in the court along with the investigating officer in the case, to leave no stone unturned and explore all and every avenue to ascertain the truth behind the death of Ahmed, who hailed from Tinsukia district in Assam.
Salim Ahmed, the father of the deceased student, moved the high court, seeking formation of an SIT to investigate the death to bring to the fore the reasons involved.
Directing the authorities of the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL), Kolkata to ensure that the viscera report of the deceased student is sent to the additional SP by 14 November, the court asked the police to file a report on the progress of the investigation in the case on the next date of hearing on 22 November, when the IIT director will also have to submit the report.
