Friday, February 19, 2010

Engg students beaten up by seniors, no case filed

CHENNAI: In a violent incident of ragging, a group of students from Bharath (deemed) University in Selaiyur, near Tambaram, were brutally beaten up by their seniors on Wednesday night for refusing to give them money. Both the university, which is owned by the relatives of a Union minister, and the police have refused to register complaints, the injured students said.

Vishwa Ranjan, a first-year student of electrical and electronics engineering, claimed that Manish Kumar, a second-year student of mechanical engineering, had demanded Rs 500 from him on Wednesday morning. When he refused, Kumar and a few of his friends allegedly beat him up before other students came to his rescue.

Hours later, more than 50 senior students descended on the rented house he shared with three of his friends in Selaiyur. He said the seniors, who came armed with hockey sticks and steel rods, broke glasspanes of windows and the rear windscreen of a car. "It was to teach us a lesson for the morning’s incident," said R Kashif Seraj, aJustify Full first-year student who lives in the house.

The seniors went on to thrash their juniors and broke chairs and a television set, the injured students said.

Police nabbed five of the seniors, but they were let off on Thursday morning after university authorities reportedly assured them that they would sort out the matter. The inaction of the authorities comes in the face of Supreme Court guidelines which make the head of the institution and the local police chief primarily responsible for action against ragging.

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