Nizam College in another ragging row

30 Aug 2008, 0307 hrs IST, TNN

HYDERABAD: In the second incident of its kind this academic year, post graduate freshers of Nizam College reported they were ragged by their

seniors and demanded college officials to take action against them.

The 12 students who were allegedly ragged held a dharna outside their college hostel in Basheerbagh on Thursday night. They said that around 20 of their seniors called them to their hostel rooms at 10.30 pm for an 'interactive session.' However, the interactive session turned ugly when some seniors who were allegedly drunk began seeking details about their families over and over again.

"They asked us about our background almost 50 times in the night. It was getting late and when we insisted that we wanted to leave, they used abusive language," N Praveen Kumar, a first year MA psychology student, said. The students said they took offence when they were asked to repeat the names of all their family members and their surnames several times.

After the incident, the students staged a dharna before the college hostel. The authorities reached the hostel only on Friday morning after a few seniors and third year degree students intervened and temporarily resolved the issue.

"Since both the seniors and juniors belonged to different students' wing of political parties, it was understood that they had prior rivalry. Many of the first year students of the current PG batch were former students of the college and knew their seniors. This friction led to problems," Nizam College principal S Satyanarayana told 'TOI'.

On Friday morning, the Abids police intervened when the students continued their dharna. "Both the groups were brought to the college for discussion. The seniors apologised for their behaviour and gave a written statement that the act will not be repeated," the principal said. In an earlier incident in July, 1st year degree
students of the college were allegedly ragged by their seniors.