[ToI] Five NRI students 'ragged' at SPA

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NEW DELHI: Even as the Supreme Court-appointed Raghavan committee has made ragging in higher education institutions a cognisable offence, its ghost seems to be haunting the School of Planning and Architecture (SPA) with a guardian lodging two complaints of freshers being coerced into doing activities against their will by the seniors.

Krishna K Jha, local guardian of two NRI students from Bangladesh, claims to have complained to director KT Ravindaran and hostel warden Rajprakash that some first-year students, including his wards and three other NRIs from UAE, Canada and South Africa have been ragged regularly since the start of the session in the hostels on both the ITO and Maharani Bagh campuses.

However, the director has refused to acknowledge any kind of written complaint though Rajprakash admitted that Jha had made allegations of ragging.

"I had received an anonymous call complaining about this but not received any written complaint," Ravindaran said. When asked to elaborate on his comment, he retorted: "I don't want to talk to you."

But Rajaprakash said: "I received a complaint from Jha but we cannot take it seriously unless students themselves come forward. Even the freshers have refused any kind of coercion." In his complaint, Jha alleged that some senior girls "call junior boys and girls to their rooms and rag them all night".

Since the classes started on August 1, first-year residents in all three hostels — one for girls at ITO and one each for boys and girls at Maharani Bagh — have been allegedly subjected to ragging in different forms, Jha claims.

"In the first two weeks, freshers at ITO hostel were called for introduction in a room at night and were asked to learn the names of their seniors. They were not allowed to leave the room the entire night. seniors warned them of dire consequences if they talked about it," Jha said.

The complaints, copies of which are with TOI, further read that some first-year female residents from the ITO hostel were forced to go to Maharani Bagh boy’s hostel and were asked to "smoke, drink and do other activities against their will, and were forced to sign on a white paper that they went to the hostel willingly".

It reads on: "One day, students from Maharani Bagh hostel came in front of the women’s hostel and used abusive language..."

Talking to Times City, Jha said: "I had informed the hostel warden about these incidents on phone in August but no action was taken. Later, on September 4, I faxed a written complaint to the warden and the director informing them about the incident."

Jha lodged a fresh complaint on September 5 after a few more cases of harassment on September 3 and September 4 — details of which were given to TOI — surfaced against the seniors.

Jha’s second complaint read: "Students are afraid and shy to tell you about the situation...hope that you will take immediate action to stop ragging."

And when TOI approached first-year students at the ITO hostel, many of them refused to speak. One of them, on the condition of anonymity, said: "We were asked to introduce ourselves and were asked to learn the names of the seniors."

Another added: "We have to be friends with seniors as they would help us later."

sonia.sarkar@timesgroup.com

[SaharaSamay] Twelve students injured in clash over ragging

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Posted at Saturday, 08 September 2007 12:09 IST

Ghaziabad (UP), Sep 8: As many as 12 students of an engineering college in Modinagar were injured in a clash between the two groups over a ragging incident, the police said today.

Police used batons to disperse the clashing senior and junior students of K.M. Modi engineering college last evening.

The junior students alleged that they were forced to strip by some final year students, but the management did not take any action.

However, the police said no complaint was lodged in this regard. The students alleged that police did not enter their complaint under pressure from the college management.

[Yahoo] Ragging: HC asks principal to be responsible for security of students

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By IE
Saturday September 8, 03:37 AM

The Calcutta High Court today asked the principal of an engineering college to ensure the safety and security of a student, who had been ragged by his seniors.

Justice Biswanath Somadder directed the principal of Mallabhum Engineering College, Bishnupur, to take responsibility for the security of Soumya Roy, a first-year student of electronics and communication at the college.

Soumya had filed a petition in the High Court after being ragged and beaten up by his seniors. He had refused to take drugs, which the seniors had demanded.

In his plea, the student had asked the court to direct the institute to transfer him to another engineering college. He had also alleged that he was not safe in this college.

After the incident, his father had lodged a complaint in Bishnupur police station against Prantik Chatterjee, Biplab Mallick and Bhargab Das, senior students of that institution. Police had arrested the three and the ACJM, Bishnupur had refused to grant bail to them on two occasions. They were later released on bail following an order by the Calcutta High Court.

The college authorities had set up a committee to probe the incident. But the committee, in a report, had stated that Soumya was not ragged. Interestingly, while hearing the bail plea, the ACJM, Bishnupur, had observed that the committee was an eyewash and had been set up only to conceal the truth.

[NewIndPress] Four suspended for ragging

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Friday September 7 2007 09:21 IST

ENS

VIJAYAWADA: Four students of NTR College of Veterinary Science at Gannvaram, who were arrested on charges of ragging, have been suspended from college for one month, according to college associate dean and in-charge principal Dr K Prabhakar.

[Statesman] Law student from Raiganj ragged in Bolpur

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Radhamadhab Saha

RAIGANJ, Sept 5: Despite the government's tall claims, students of educational institutions in the state, it seems, are still not free from physical torture in the name of formal ragging by their seniors.

In one such incident, Sagnik Chakraborty, a first year student of Bolpur Law College in Birbhum and resident of Raiganj, was allegedly subjected to physical assault in the name of ragging by Bijoy Kumar Dey, a third year student of Bengal Institute of Technology, and his associates at a rented house in Bolpur. An injured Sagnik, who returned home today, had to undergo treatment at the Raiganj district hospital. His father, Mr Chandan Chakraborty, a teacher by profession, today lodged a complaint against Bijoy and his friends with the Raiganj police station.
Alleging that his son was subjected to physical assault, Mr Chakraborty demanded strong action against the accused students.

Sagnik, who passed HS examination from Kaliyaganj Parbati Sundari Higher Secondary School this year, took admission in Bolpur Law College. Talking to reporters here today, he said: "At Bolpur, I was living in a rented room at Udayanpally, around 10 km away from my college. Bijoy was also staying in the same house, though in another room. I used to take meal in another house with Bijoy and his associates. They were physically assaulting me in the name of ragging. Last Thursday, they tied up my eyes with handkerchief, placed me on the railing of the three-storyed building and instructed me to walk through the railing. After advancing two steps, I started losing balance and jumped on the right side building. I fell on the roof of another three-storyed building. Thanks God, I did not receive any major injury. However, Bijoy and his friends caught me again and touched my body parts with burning cigarette. As a result, I received burn injuries. I later informed the matter to my father who reached Bolpur the next day and brought me here."

Sagnik's father Mr Chandan Chakraborty said they will bring the matter to the notice of the Union I&B and parliamentary affairs minister, Mr Priya Ranjan Das Munshi, urging him to take action against the accused students.

Speaking to The Statesman over telephone, Dr Subir Roy, the teacher in-charge of Bolpur Law College, said: "The incident was unfortunate. Those who ragged Sagnik are not the students of our college. If we receive any written complaint from the victim, we will contact the BITM authorities over the issue and urge them to take action against the accused students."
The North Dinajpur SP, Mr SB Purnapatra, said they have informed the matter to Birbhum police officials.

[Yahoo] Ahmedabad college suspends two for ragging junior

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Ahmedabad (Gujarat): Even as Chennai has pledged to curb the menace of ragging in colleges, other cities are stepping forward and doing their bit.

In Ahmedabad, two postgraduate medical students at the V S Hospital have been suspended after they were accused of ragging a junior.

Tarek Patel and Prakash Sharda allegedly beat up their junior, Dr Mittal Dave. Dave has lodged a complaint with the local police.

The medical college, earlier acting on Dave's complaint, had initiated an internal enquiry into the incident.

This is not the first incident of ragging reported from V S Hospital. Several students have reportedly dropped out after being ragged by their seniors.

[ToI] Ragging case: Warden faces heat

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NAGPUR: The hostel inmates have lodged strong protest with the vice-chancellor S N Pathan and registrar Subhash Belsare against newly-appointed warden A Undirwade and police for harassing in the allege ragging case. The hostel inmates, however, refuted the allegations of ragging of Gulab Bawanthade and said that it was "personal dispute between him and accused Usmankhan Pathan".

They said that though the dispute is between two students, the police are unnecessarily harassing other students by entering into their rooms without permission and repeatedly questioning them at odd hours. They also alleged that policemen used abusive language and even threatened them with dire consequences, which is not only affecting their studies, but also instilled a sense of fear among them. They also alleged that Dr Undirwade had forcibly took their identity cards by entering their rooms late in the night and even recorded them on camera. They claimed that due to these unusual developments many students have left the hostel.

They threatened that if their harassment from warden and police is not stopped immediately, the university authorities should cancel their registration from the hostel and return their money. The university officials were not available for their comments. The controversy over five-decade-old hostel at Law College Square started when Gulab accused Usmankhan of physical and mental torture inside his room and subsequently lodged a police complaint alleging ragging. Usmankhan was later arrested by the police and released on the bail on Wednesday.