Ragging: 4 students from Kollam hospitalised

Four first year students of an engineering college at Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu have been admitted to a private hospital here for trauma and injuries after being allegedly ragged by senior students of the college.

The students, Agnel Andrews, Paulson Joseph, Sachin Julian Francis, and Anoop Wilson, are natives of Pullichira, near here. They are first year civil engineering students of St. Mother Teresa Engineering College. They have lodged a complaint of ragging against the senior students with the Kottiyam police station. The students said the seniors who ragged them were from Kerala. They told The Hindu that they were being ragged since the time they had joined the hostel. In addition to making them do chores, the senior students regularly made them cough up money for charging their mobile phones, they said.

On Sunday night, five of them were kept locked in a room from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. and even beaten at intervals. The seniors, numbering 16 students, told them that they should pay Rs.10,000 the next day.

The five students were let free only after they agreed to pay the money. In the morning, four of them “managed to escape from the hostel” and reach Kollam.

They then informed the college Principal and the warden about the incident, the students said.

They feared going back to the college, the four students said.

The college Principal, when contacted over phone, said he had constituted an inquiry committee soon after the four students had lodged a complaint over telephone. The committee had concluded that prima facie there was a case against the senior students. On the basis of this finding, 11 students had been suspended pending further inquiry.

The Principal said the parents of the four students were meeting him on Wednesday and after they submit written complaints, appropriate follow-up action would be taken