[ToI] Police file FIR in hostel ragging case

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17 Sep 2007, 0406 hrs IST,TNN

LUCKNOW: A named FIR was registered against five persons in the ragging of MCA student Sanjay Pal Singh. Three of the accused lived in the private hostel, Anand Villa, while two are outsiders. Sanjay had gone into a state of acute psychosis after being ragged. He is undergoing treatment in CSMMU.

The hostel authorities have claimed that Sanjay suffered from some psychiatric problems even before joining the hostel. However, his relatives have refuted this claim.

Sanjay's father, Ajay Pal Singh lodged an FIR with the Madiaon police station on Sunday that his son was ragged by inmates of Anand Villa Hostel located in the area. Ajay has named RS Tripathi, Vikas Gupta, Pravin Chaudhary and other unidentified inmates of the hostel as the accused. Two outsiders - Naaus and Mama - were also a party to the crime. They have been accused of mental and physical torture. Naaus and Mama threatened Sanjay with dire consequences. The FIR also states that though the warden was informed about the incident no action was taken.

Sanjay's family finally shifted him to the house of his local guardian. However, on Saturday, when Sanjay was going in a city bus to attend his classes, the five accused stopped the bus. They threatened and abused him after which Sanjay left his bag in the bus and ran for his life. He has been behaving like a deranged person ever since. Sanjay was admitted to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Medical University's (CSMMU) psychiatry ward on Saturday.

Sanjay has been in a delirious state and has been shouting names of the students who ragged him and saying they will kill him. "He has been kept under heavy sedation, so we have not been able to take his version. We have been told that Sanjay has a history of psychiatric problems. But investigations are on," said SP (TG), Umesh Kumar Singh.

The warden of Anand Villa Hostel, Gyan Prakash Srivastava said, "Sanjay was a bit eccentric. He used to keep awake the entire night. He was suspicious of others and whenever he saw two people talking, he used to think they were talking about him." He added that Sanjay was given a room of his choice but he started having problems with other students.

Refuting the charges that Sanjay had psychiatric problems, Sanjay's local guardian Sudhakar Singh told TOI, "Sanjay had joined the hostel only 15 days back. How did the hostel authorities come to know that he was mentally sick? You can go to his village- Dhanautia in Bareilly district- and find out. Everybody knows he had no such ailment." Sudhakar pleaded that such a serious case of ragging should not be made frivolous by such accusations. "Sanjay was saved on time else he could have run away from home or committed suicide," he said.