Delhi boy opposes ragging at Goa varsity, beaten up

14 Sep 2008, 0547 hrs IST, Gauree Malkarnekar, TNN
PANAJI: Uday Anand, a final year MCA student at Goa University, is living under constant fear from his classmates for asking his juniors to

stand up against ragging. Uday, who joined the three-year MCA course at Goa University in 2006, was assaulted recently.

Soon after he started staying at the men's hostel, some seniors tried to rag Uday, a resident of Delhi. However, he did not give in. "I was the lone person in my batch who resisted ragging. This year, my batchmates and a few former students were ragging freshers, but as I do not approve of it, I told the freshers not to be afraid of me", says Uday.

On July 14, 2008, at around 12.30 am Uday was woken up by heavy banging on his hostel room door. When he opened the door, 12 to 15 persons including his batchmates and two members who were not students of the university entered the room, abused him and demanded to know why he was instigating first-year students against ragging.

Uday alleges that he was then assaulted. "I managed to flee from the spot and called up the warden and the police. The police arrived 30 minutes later and the warden arrived with one of the professors after about 45 minutes". he added.

According to Uday, the head of the department and the warden of the hostel assured him that appropriate action would be taken against the miscreants and was asked not to file a police complaint. In a meeting, the registrar said that a show cause notice would be issued to the miscreants. Uday's batchmates who were said to be involved were individually interrogated by the registrar, the warden and faculty members. Four of them were found to be guilty and an undertaking was taken from them by the registrar that they would not repeat the behaviour.

Uday says, "Nearly 50 days have passed but no measures have been taken to ensure my safety. I am intimidated by some of the classmates on a daily basis. I have moved 4 distinct applications to Goa University and my father has made two applications to the vice-chancellor of Goa University. But to no avail."

But the Goa University registrar, M M Sangodkar, said, "If Uday is claiming that nothing has been done to ensure his security, this is false. A detailed inquiry was conducted in the case and he was even given an option to shift to another block in the men's hostel. But he refused to. We even took an undertaking from the students found guilty saying that they would not repeat the behaviour."