Thursday, February 02, 2012

All NIFFT hostels vacated after ragging menace rocks campus

RANCHI: Students of National Institute of Foundry and Forge Technology (NIFFT), Ranchi, have been asked to vacate the campus after the college authorities ordered closure of all hostels on Sunday.

The action was taken after the students of second, third and fourth year classes barged into the rooms of first year students, ragged and fought with them on Thursday. The seniors also damaged the windows of the junior students' rooms and ransacked their belongings.

NIFFT director S N Sinha said, "Senior students not only had a scuffle with the juniors but when I tried to intervene and stop them, they even threw stones at my house and broke the glass of my car. The situation had gone out of control."

"I am not here to spoil the career of students. I took action after I got orders from the headquarters in Delhi. Taking this step was necessary to diffuse the tension," Sinha added.

After the hostel was vacated, some students went home and others met Union minister Subodh Kant Sahay seeking justice. "We walked down 8 km to meet Sahay. But he was not in town. However, he got the HEC community hall opened for us to spend the night," said Sonu, a third year student.

The students met him on Monday morning. "He said he would take a positive step in this direction and also spoke to the college administration and asked them to reopen the hostel," said Chandan, a fourth year student.

"Most of the students have gone back home and those who are here will stay at their relatives or friends' place until further notice," added Chandan. An agitated Rahul said, "We did nothing. Why should we suffer for the mistake of others? We have all the right to stay in the hostel and attend classes."

The institute director said the hostel would be reopened 20 days later after talking to the guardians of the students.

Hatia additional superintendent of police Indrajeet Mahata said, "We have deployed a magistrate and police at the college gate and in case students try to create any disturbance, appropriate measures will be taken on the orders of the magistrate."

Harassed Presidency University first-year student slashes wrist in hostel

KOLKATA: Political scuffle raised its ugly head on Thursday night at Hindu Hostel, with a harassed first-year student of Presidency University attempting suicide.

Political science student Ajay Dewan of Tripura survived after slashing his wrist in the face of continuous harassment by his seniors. Ajay alleged his tormentors owed allegiance to Students Federation of India (SFI), CPM's student wing.

Trouble was brewing in ward No. 2 of Hindu Hostel, once tagged the home for apolitical students. "When we applied for accommodation, seniors assured us that students lived together in harmony in ward No. 2 and political allegiance wouldn't matter. But on moving in, the scenario turned hostile. We were constantly harassed. SFI students who reside in our wards made fun of Ajay," said his roommate Sumalya Mukhopadhyay, a second-year English honours student.

"Our seniors organized a ward tour to Shankarpur a few weeks back. Since we sympathized with Independents Consolidation, we were tortured and harassed and refused to go. A ward meeting was convened on Thursday. Usually, the agenda is put up on the notice board. But no agenda was mentioned for this meeting. We feared the meeting was called to harass Dewan and two of us who are his friends. Our fears proved right," he said.

'SFI seniors wanted to throw us out'

On Thursday night, English honours student Sumalya Mukhopadhyay alleged, "The meeting began with the SFI hostel residents of the ward accusing us of violating the code of conduct and spreading intra-ward words. They also claimed that we were promoting our political agenda inside the ward, which was once free from politics. A vote of ward boarders on this issue was taken. Since SFI students dominate the ward, a resolution was adopted 40-8 against us."

Sumalya added, "Three SFI seniors then decided that Ajay, me and Nitabjyo Banerjee should be thrown out of the hostel. Though some seniors tried to protect us, the SFI trio was hell-bent on throwing us out. As this torture and abuse was on for weeks, Ajay went outside the room and banged his wrist against a glass door. He was bleeding profusely. We rushed him to Medical College where he received stitches. We have lodged an FIR against the three SFI hostel residents."

When TOI visited Hindu Hostel, Ajay was sleeping on the ground floor with his right wrist bandaged. "The seniors had always harassed us. We refused to go on the ward tour because we feared the seniors would intensify their ragging after consuming alcohol at Shankarpur. Hence we stayed away. The torture has been on for too long and has started to bother me. I found no way out of this menace and thus ended up hurting myself," Ajay said.

Two students ragged by seniors on running train

n an alleged case of ragging, two engineering students from Kerala studying in Tamil Nadu were brutally assaulted by their seniors on a Kerala-bound train on Friday night while their co-passengers looked on.

Geeverghese John and Arun Raj, both 19, were travelling in the general compartment of the train when their seniors, most of them inebriated, allegedly demanded their ATM cards and money.

When John and Raj refused, they were attacked with blades and iron rods. The bleeding students then got off at Erode where they were taken to a government hospital by railway authorities.
John, a student of Jnanamani Engineering College in Salem, has now been admitted to the Specialists' Hospital in Kochi with deep wounds and cuts all over his body. More than 50 stitches were required to stop the bleeding.

Raj too had several stitches on his body and forehead and is undergoing treatment at a hospital in Thrissur.

“The seniors even threatened to throw us out of the running train,” John said. The Tamil Nadu police have registered a case and alerted their Kerala counterpart to help name the accused.

Hostel inmates rebel over eviction of 3 girls accused of ragging

NAGPUR: Girls from a government hostel thronged the social welfare office on Thursday and protested for the entire day after the warden evicted three senior girls for allegedly ragging two sisters. The evicted girls and rest of the hostel residents claimed the ragging allegations were false, and demanded that the seniors girls should be allowed back in the hostel. Finally, the three girls were allowed to stay till senior social welfare officials return from Mumbai.

Smita Kamde, Namrapali Gondane and Sangeeta Bankar, all students of LLM second year, were thrown out of the hostel after Shalini and Nalini Bagde alleged ragging and torture by them.

On Wednesday afternoon, the Bagde sisters, staying at a government hostel in Sakkardara, had alleged torture and ragging since last week by three senior girls. They had even gone to file a complaint at Sadar police station but were turned away. Police said a case could be registered only after the warden or other government official lodged a complaint.

On Thursday, the rest of the girls at the hostel raised slogans and marched to the divisional commissioner's officer to protest the eviction of three senior girls. However, they were turned away since the commissioner was not in the city. The protesting girls were also sent back from the police commissioner's office as police chief Ankush Dhanvijay was busy in a meeting. Later, the girls reached Sadar police station where they were assured of proper action against the warden.

"There was no ragging at all. The Bagde sisters are lying," said Sangeeta. The girls said that a few months ago these three seniors had complained and protested against the then warden Rajni Vaidya for harassing and forcing them to do extra work at the hostel. "She would abuse us and threaten to oust us from the hostel. Hence, the seniors complained about her and she was suspended," said Sangeeta.

Shalini claims that since she and her sister did not support the seniors in the complaint against Vaidya, they accused Nalini of stealing a cell phone and beat her in front of other girls.

The other girls however allege that since Vaidya is a distant relative of the Bagde sisters, she might have forced the sisters to file a complaint against the girls.

Lajwanti Singar, present warden of the hostel, denied any ragging happened in the hostel. She said that till higher officials return from Mumbai, all the girls will be allowed to stay in the hostel. Social welfare officer Siddharth Gaikwad did not pick up phone calls.

SB student falls to death, father blames ragging

CUTTACK: The SB Women’s College here was shocked on Monday when a student and hostel boarder allegedly fell to death on the campus. Police are investing all angles __ whether it was an accident or suicide or any other foul play.
The girl __ Swayamsiddha Jagyanseni Sahoo __ a Plus Three first year student, was found lying in a pool of blood on the ground near the Old Hostel of the college. She had apparently fallen from the roof of the three-storey building.
Sahoo, daughter of Executive Engineer Hrudananda Sahoo posted at Jeypore, was staying in the first floor. She is believed to have climbed up to the roof at around 8 am.
Stunned authorities and students managed to come to terms with the incident a couple of hours after and the police were informed. Police rushed to the spot and sent the body for postmortem.
According to Lalbag Police, how she fell down is yet to be established. Either she might have committed suicide for some reason or might have slipped and fallen absent-minded while talking over phone. Her phone has been recovered from beside the body, police said.
Police are investigating all aspects, said her parents who reached here after receiving the news. The father of the girl, who was in Bhubaneswar from Sunday, has alleged that his daughter died due to ragging. A case has been registered.

Two medical students suspended for ragging

The victim was made to kneel down and manhandled. He was hospitalised

Two students of Mundiampakkam Government Medical College have been placed under suspension for ragging a junior student.

A police complaint has been filed in this regard.

Police said Mahesh (19) of Thirukkoilur and Mohammad Batcha (19) of Manapparai used to rag R. Deepak (17), a first-year student from Tiruppattur.

The seniors forced Deepak to do their bidding and asked him to pay them money.

When he refused to oblige, they beat him up and made him to kneel down. After he was seriously manhandled by the seniors on Saturday, Deepak got admitted to the medical college hospital.

The police booked a case by invoking Section 294 (b) (using abusive language) and 323 (causing hurt) of the IPC.

When contacted, college Dean Thenmozhi Valli said appropriate action would be initiated against the two students after getting the views of the academic council.