Student reports ragging, NID orders probe

The National Institute of Design has formed a seven-member committee to look into a complaint of ragging after an official complaint by a new student. The foundation course student filed a formal written complaint on Friday evening, accusing three second year students of ragging him. The institute had warned senior students about the consequences several days prior to the complaint.

The incident, however, has evoked angry responses from many senior students who accuse the freshman of having over-reacted. Senior students had apparently entered the juniors’ rooms at night and asked them to smoke cigarettes. One senior student brushed aside the incident as “a yearly drama, endemic around each May and June”.

Registrar Vijaya Deshmukh said the administration had received calls and emails from parents of a few new students, and that had kept them on their toes. Deshmukh said forcefully entering the students’ rooms counts as a misdemeanor, and that the senior students ought to have heeded the administration’s earlier warnings.

The institute has, after the incident, barred seniors from entering the junior’s rooms, and security guards have been asked to remain vigilant.

Two of the three accused students are in the Product Design and Exhibition Design courses, and the third has not yet been allotted one, having just passed his foundation course.

The committee will begin investigations from Monday, and a decision is expected to be reached by the end of the week. The three accused students have been suspended. An FIR has not been registered yet.