Five students booked for ragging in Rajasthan

Jaipur: Criminal cases were slapped against five students of a university in Udaipur on Friday after a first-year Bachelor of Science (BSc) student went into depression after he was ragged, police said.

Mohanlal Sukhadia University's student Sanjay Chauhan alleged he was made to stand in unusual postures and thrashed severely by his seniors when he protested. He claimed that he was "harassed physically and mentally".

The varsity authorities have also issued notices to the accused students and referred the matter to the university's disciplinary committee.

Police said the incident took place at the university's Science College in Udaipur Thursday, 400 km from here.

Chauhan alleged in his police complaint that Harish Kapaliya, Hemant Raigar, Ankit Paliwal, Arvind and Saurabh Choudhary thrashed him severely when he tried to protest the ragging.

A police officer told IANS: "We have lodged a first information report for wrongful restraint and voluntarily causing hurt."

The incident comes close on the heels of a ragging incident in Jodhpur's Jai Narain Vyas University where 16 students were booked for ragging an engineering student Monday.

Keeping in view the increasing number of ragging incidents in Rajasthan, some universities have made it mandatory for all the students to sign an affidavit during admissions stating that they would not indulge in any ragging-related activities.

Acting on Supreme Court directives, some higher education institutions have equipped themselves with CCTV cameras and asked the student counsellors to check ragging activities. However, many colleges have failed to comply with the norms.