Aggrieved father approaches SHRC in ragging case

6 Sep 2008, 0359 hrs IST, Nitesh Kumar Sharma, TNN
JAIPUR: Ragging at the college has literally changed his life. Harass-ment by some seniors has stressed him so much that he is forced to undergo

psychiatric counselling for these days. He has left college and feels himself unable to continue with his studies. His parents are so helpless due to the apathetic attitude of the police and college admini-stration that they find themselves unable to help their 19-year-old son whom they had sent to Jaipur from Punjab for studying veterinary medicine.

Prateek Bagi - a first-year student of Apollo College of Veterinary Medicine
- had joined the college on August 4. Soon, he had to run back to Punjab when he was harassed by some seniors. His hairs were cut-off; he was made to move around the campus naked and physically attacked many times.

His parents rushed all the way to Jaipur from Punjab in rescue of their son twice, requested the college administra-tion to take action against the guilty students and finally lodged an FIR with the police, but nothing has worked to help their son.
Now, his dis-traught father has approached the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) requesting it to pay heed to the problem, which is destroying his son's life and career."First, the college administration was reluctant to lodge any complaint or take any action against the seniors who troubled my son. We had to run from pillar to post to lodge an FIR when we approached the Kanota police directly. Now, when they have lodged the FIR against the four students, they are yet to take any action against them," said Satish Bagi, Prateek's father.

"Even after the FIR was lodged, seniors kept harassing my son. This has stressed him so much that he is undergoing psychiatric counsel-ling now. He has denied to continue studying in the college," Satish added. "As, I and my son have been disappointed by every one, I have sent an application to the SHRC to get justice," he said.

When contacted, the police seemed to have forgotten about the inci-dent. The police said that the four accused students had been abscond-ing since August 22, the day on which FIR against them was lodged.

"We had lodged the FIR under section 341, 323, 355 and 500 of IPC. We had inquired about the four students at the college once and sent teams to their homes, but their relatives told us that they were absconding since then. I will start a fresh search for them," said Heera Lal, SHO of Kanota police station.