Ragging victims attacked again by tormentors

KOLAGHAT: The night of June 15, 2009, came back to haunt Abhay Singh and Sharad Kumar, now second-year students at Kolaghat Engineering College, on Sunday night. A year ago, Abhay and Sharad were ragged, assaulted and had to spend days in the hospital.

A complaint was lodged with the police and the file has been gathering dust since then. On Sunday night, Abhay and Sharad were beaten up, allegedly by the same set of seniors, for not withdrawing the complaint. The college authorities have sought police protection, but no complaint has been filed against the attackers.

On Sunday night, Abhay and Sharad — students of electronics and communications — were in their hostel room, revising for their ongoing exams. Around 10 pm, a group of students — allegedly from the third year — barged in.

Abhay and Sharad were dragged out of their bed and abuses were hurled at them along with blows and kicks. "They (the attackers) kept on asking why the police complaint has not been withdrawn. Despite the complaint, neither the police nor the college authorities have taken any steps against them," said Abhay.

For the next half hour, Abhay and Sharad were at the mercy of the 25-odd youths who had forced into the room. Thirty minutes later, some of the duo's classmates mustered courage and raised an alarm, forcing the assaulters to flee. Late in the night, the students reported the incident to the college authorities.

On Monday morning, the college authorities met East Midnapore SP Ashok Biswas, requesting him for security at the hostel and college. "We will post a team at the hostel. No fresh complaint has been lodged by the students," Biswas said. Sharad said they were too scared to lodge a complaint. "Our exams are going on. There is no other way for us but to depend on the college authorities," Sharad said. The college authorities refused to comment.

Tamluk MP Subhendu Adhikary went to the college and met the aggrieved student. "The administration has to take steps to ensure that such incidents are not repeated," he said.

Mystery shrouds BJ college medical student's suicide bid

Dayanand Meitei / DNA/Saturday, June 12, 2010 8:55 IST

Ahmedabad: Was it the ragging in the hostel that prompted the BJ medical college student to want to take her life? Or was it instead, the supposed embarrassment of having been caught stealing, that drove her to slit both her wrists, at her residence at Limbdi on Thursday night?

The reasons behind the second year MBBS student from BJ attempting suicide remain unclear. While the NSUI and the girl's parents cite ragging as the reason, college officials are saying the girl is a kleptomaniac.

When DNA contacted NSUI students, they claimed the institute's version to be completely false. State NSUI vice-president Bhavin Sinh Rathod said, "Our representatives got in touch with the girl and her parents, and found out that the institute wanted to suppress the girl's complaint of ragging against her seniors. They even forced the girl to remain mum and not reveal the matter to anyone. The depression led her to take the extreme step of attempting suicide."

According to reliable sources, the girl's parents, in their testimonial to the police, have stated harassment by the institute as the reason behind their daughter's attempt to kill herself.

As a protest against the institute, NSUI student members carried out a demonstration at the BJ Medical College's main office at around 2 pm on Friday, ransacking the premises and breaking chairs, glasses and computers.

However, officials of the BJ medical college denied any possible ragging. The college's dean Bharat Shah said, "The incident today was triggered by a wrong media report which claimed that the girl attempted suicide because of ragging."

Alleging that the girl suffered from kleptomania, Shah said, "On May 26, around 40 students complained that the girl has been continuously stealing things from the others in the hostel. When the hostel committee searched her room, they found the stolen clothes, mobile phones and ATM cards."

Shah added that following the incident, the girl's parents were summoned to the institute, and they confessed in writing about the stealing. "They volunteered to vacate the hostel themselves, though we didn't ask them to leave", he said, adding, "The incident has nothing to do with ragging at all."

As for the girl, after initial treatment at a local hospital in Limbdi, she was shifted to the Ahmedabad civil hospital.

Haryana varsity suspends three students for ragging

June 2nd, 2010 - 12:38 am ICT by IANS -

(Haryana), June 1 (IANS) Three MBA students were Tuesday suspended by the vice-chancellor of the Maharshi Dayanand University (MDU) here for ragging their juniors, officials said.
The three students - Aman Redhu, Surender Bishnoi and Anil Dalal - were accused of physically harassing and intimidating two junior students of the Institute of Management Studies and Research (IMSR) here.

“Such acts are totally intolerable in our institutions and strict action will be taken against the errant students. We have suspended the students with immediate effect and started a probe into the matter,” said MDU vice-chancellor R.P. Hooda.

“We have banned their entry into the varsity campus till further orders. The hostel rooms of the accused have been sealed by the authorities concerned and we have withheld the results of their last examination,” he added.