[Telegraph] Ragging sparks clash in college

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OUR CORRESPONDENT

Gaya, March 28: Tension brewed in Anugrah Narain Magadh Medical College today following a clash between two groups of doctors yesterday.

Twelve junior doctors were injured in the clash on the college premises and one of them, with head injuries, had to be hospitalised.

Sources claimed ragging in the college sparked the clash, but the principal of the institution, Madan Mohan Prasad Singh, ruled out ragging as the root of all the trouble.

He also remained mum on if the clash between the doctors had any “caste overtone”.

The principal said a committee under A. Barkat, the head of the surgery department, would be constituted to investigate the affair. Strict action would be taken on the basis of the panel’s report, he added.

Barkat, when contacted, said he was yet to receive any official communication regarding the probe.

Gaya superintendent of police Amit Jain told The Telegraph that the situation did not warrant police intervention at this stage. “Nobody has lodged a formal complaint with the police,” he said.

Conceding that he was aware of the clash, the SP said that the principal has assured that the college authorities would sort out the “internal disciplinary matter”.

Several people criticised the police inaction but the SP, also a former medical graduate, said that according to convention the police intervene in the incidents on the campus only after being informed by the college authorities.

Gaya doctors have been known to be divided along caste lines and have involved in brawls several times. This is the third incident of violence in the same medical college in the recent past.

Earlier, doctors assaulted television journalists and snatched the camera of a TV crewmember. The doctors have also clashed with local shopkeepers.