[ToI] Students booked for ragging

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LUCKNOW: The Lucknow University authorities on Tuesday lodged FIR against four students and put them under suspension for their alleged involvement in a ragging incident. An inquiry has also been constituted on the written complaint of junior students.

According to proctor AN Singh, the four BA II students suspended are Mani Singh, Mritunjay Singh, Prem Singh and Bhanu Pratap. The complaint was lodged by four BA I students Jai Prakash, Sunit, Shrawan and Avinash Verma in which they have accused seniors of harassing juniors in the name of ragging.

Juniors have alleged that seniors used to assign them work with the threat that those who failing to do their assignments will be made to urinate on heaters or singed with a cigarette buts. Juniors also complained that seniors use abusive language against them.

Both the accused and the complainants are residents of Acharya Narendra Dev (AND) hostel. The alleged ragging sessions used to take place in room number 110 and 125 of the hostel. LU authorities are verifying the claims of the complainants as the latter have not been able to produce any evidence to support their allegations.

The Proctor told the TOI that as per the directions of the Supreme Court we have lodged an FIR and suspended the students against whom charges of ragging have been levelled. But we are also verifying the veracity of the charges to ensure that innocents do not get punished, he said. If found guilty, these seniors will be expelled from the university, he added.

Meanwhile, proctorial board members took rounds of various hostels and asked the junior students to report any incident of ragging without fail. Juniors were also told not be afraid of seniors. Prof Nishi Pandey, dean student welfare, assured students that university will provide them full protection.

The incident of ragging had come to light on Monday when some junior students created ruckus at the AND hostel claiming that some day scholars along with senior hostlers were subjecting juniors to ragging. University authorities raided several hostels following complaint but could find nothing. However, an identification was done on Tuesday on the basis of the complaint lodged by the juniors.