Delhi architecture student alleges ragging by seniors

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/delhi-architecture-student-alleges-ragging-by-seniors/article4272149.ece

 It all happened on September 2; FIR on December 30 after victim’s father approached Jharkhand High Court A Bachelor of Architecture first year student at the School of Planning & Architecture here was allegedly ragged by some of his seniors in the hostel causing him injuries.

 A case has been registered at the New Friends Colony police station in this connection. Though the incident took place this past September 2, the First Information Report (FIR) was registered on December 30 after repeated complaints to the institute officials did not evoke any response and the victim’s father, a resident of Ranchi, approached the Jharkhand High Court.

 According to the FIR, the victim was in his hostel at Taimoor Nagar when some students of Bachelor of Architecture (II) tortured him mentally and physically causing injuries to his knee. “His seniors called him along with his classmates to the terrace and began roughing them up. They put bricks on his back and asked him to do push-ups and hurled abuses at him.

 He was then asked to place his hands parallel to shoulders and hold bricks on them. It continued for almost six hours till 4 a.m.,” said the victim’s father, claiming that the seniors were in large numbers and his son knew five of them by their names. The victim told his father about the incident over phone on September 3 and reached his hometown a week later.

 His father then wrote to the institute seeking action, but there was no response. He then filed a writ in the Jharkhand High Court on November 26. “The injuries inflicted on my son have not just caused him physical and mental pain, but also caused loss of studies as well as he will be under treatment for more than three months. It also caused financial burden on the family,” said the victim’s father. A case has been registered under Sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 341 (wrongful restraint) of the Indian Penal Code. Keywords: School of Planning & Architecture, ragging allegation, New Friends Colony police station

Another ragging skeleton tumbles out of Himachal cupboard

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-newdelhi/another-ragging-skeleton-tumbles-out-of-himachal-cupboard/article4247357.ece

 With memories of Aman Kachroo ragging case still fresh in mind, a new case of harassment of a 16-year-old student by his seniors at Sundernagar Polytechnic College has now come to light. The boy, a first year student of automobile engineering in Government Polytechnic College of Sundernagar in Mandi, has been referred to the Indira Gandhi Medical College and State Hospital in Shimla with serious injuries and burn marks inflicted by cigarette butts.

The student is under trauma and hardly speaks to anyone, said his parents who traced him somewhere in Punjab when the boy walked out of the private PG (paying guest) accommodation after the torture by the seniors. Two students, who were immediately suspended by the College authorities, were produced in a Juvenile Court on Thursday. They were granted bail and sent for counselling.

 The victim’s parents, who demanded severe punishment for the culprits, disclosed that their son had been depressed for some time and was not responding normally to their phone calls. With remorse they said that they could not gauge the behavioural change in their son, or else they would have brought him home earlier. He was threatened by the culprits not to disclose anything to his parents or teachers, they said.

 They alleged that their son, feeling humiliated and hurt, was told to arrange for drugs by the other inmates of the PG and the same treatment must have been meted out by other juniors in the college. The victim has received injuries on legs, arms, face and private parts.

We have recovered his blood-stained clothes from his PG, they said. The State has implemented strict anti-ragging laws after the Aman Satya Kachroo case. The first year student of Rajendra Prasad Tanda Medical College in Kangra had died on March 8, 2009 when he was brutally beaten up by four of his drunken seniors. A trial court had convicted all the four accused in November 2010 and had sentenced them to four years of rigorous imprisonment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

 However, according to sources, ragging menace still continues in private and government professional colleges and even boarding schools in the hill State. But a majority of them go unreported.

Nine medical students arrested for ragging

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-12-21/hyderabad/35952659_1_medical-students-medical-college-medical-sciences

 ONGOLE: Clamping down on ragging, Prakasam district police on Thursday arrested nine medical students. All the accused are the first year students of Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), Ongole, a government medical college. Incidentally, they are the first batch students of the newly opened medical college.

 The students accused of ragging their classmates, were sent to judicial remand for 14 days. Giving the details, SP K Raghurami Reddy said a group of students formed into a gang and started harassing some of their classmates. A student, Veerlapati Nagavenkata Ganesh of East Godavari district stayed in the medical college hostel for two months since his admission into the college.

Unable to bear the alleged torture by a 'dominant group',he shifted to a private room near the college last week. However, the students went to his room and ragged him over the past few days. The accused are believed to have threatened the victim on the college campus on Wednesday and attacked him in the room in the late hours on that day.

Upon information, police reached the spot and arrested all the nine accused. During interrogation, another incident of ragging came to the notice of the police. The police immediately summoned the other victim, Vallepu Santoth Kumar of Nalgonda district, also a first year student and recorded his statement. The SP directed the local police to register cases against the medical students.

Police arrested Ravi, Praveen, Elia Naik, Anoop, Karunya, Kaushik, Mohan, Varma and Sivannarayana. Ongole One Town SI Shaik Gouse said the accused have been charged under section 4 (1) of AP Prevention of Ragging Act.

No respite from ragging: Seniors thrashed student at Law institute

http://daily.bhaskar.com/article/MP-IND-no-respite-from-ragging-seniors-thrashed-student-at-law-institute-4119117-NOR.html

 Indore: A first year law student of Indore Institute of Law (IIL) was allegedly ragged in the college campus and outside by his seniors and a classmate over a personal argument last week. Rewat Singh Raghuwanshi, a first semester student, was allegedly beaten up with baseball sticks by his two seniors of seventh semester- Yashraj Tiwari and Zaid Menon- with his classmate Abhijeet Yadav, who is son of a high court judge. 

Student leader Varsha Sharma, who led a protest against the college management for negligence in the case, told DNA that Rewat was beaten up by the seniors on December 16, two days after he had a verbal fight with Abhijeet. "Abhijeet has a good rapport with seniors in the college.

It was under his influence that the senior boys beat Rewat and also took off his gold ring. Next day, he was beaten up with baseball sticks. He suffered bruises on his back," said Varsha. Rewat immediately rushed to Tukoganj police station on December 16 after he was thrashed by Yashraj and Zaid. He was taken for a medical checkup by the police.

 Police confirmed that Rewat's friend Sushant Kohli lodged a complaint. An FIR has been filed against the two senior students. Student leaders including Varsha and ABVP member Vijay Mulchandi have reported the matter to the college management and the anti ragging committee of DAVV.

 Another ragging case of student Abhishek Shukla of the same institute IIL had come up last month and the management did not take any action on the same.

Ragging in CMCH: ex-warden’s plea to be PIL

http://www.hindustantimes.com/Punjab/Chandigarh/Ragging-in-CMCH-Plea-filed-by-ex-warden-to-be-treated-as-PIL/SP-Article1-973405.aspx

The Punjab and Haryana high court has decided to treat as a public interest litigation (PIL) the plea filed by a former assistant professor at Ludhiana's Christian Medical College and Hospital (CMCH), Dr Robert James, highlighting ragging of juniors by students in the CMCH boys' hostel.

 Dr James, who has since resigned from the CMCH, had told the court that in his capacity as warden of the college's Ross Boys' Hostel, he had complained to the administration about the ongoing ragging in July; but rather than taking any action, he had been illegally suspended by the hospital on September 20.

Justice Rajesh Bindal on Friday referred the petition to the chief justice for treating it as a PIL and putting up the case before an appropriate court. The development took place when the petitioner's counsel Hitesh Kaplish informed the court that now the petitioner's prayer regarding revoking his suspension had become infructuous, he had resigned and subsequently joined Punjab Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), Jalandhar.

However, the main issue regarding ragging still remained. The CMCH, in its reply submitted to the court earlier, has denied the allegations, stating that there were no complaints from students. However, Kaplish informed the court that Dr James had evidence in the form of complaints from students, besides conversations recorded on compact discs (CD) and their transcripts.

 As per a notification by the Medical Council of India on August 3, 2009, once an incident of ragging is reported to the head of institution, he/she has to strictly act considering ragging as a cognizable offence under law. A cognizable offence is one for which the police can arrest the accused without a court-issued warrant.

3 students picked up after ragging clash

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-12-13/chennai/35795718_1_senior-students-college-authorities-police-officer

 CHENNAI: Police detained three students of Sathyabama Engineering College after a clash over ragging in Thoraipakkam on Tuesday night.

Police later let them off. Police said the trouble started when second-year engineering students asked a first-year student to remove ear studs. When the freshers resisted the attempts to rag them, the seniors attacked them, a police officer said. Both sides exchanged blows and the seniors claimed that the first-year students had abused them.

A few other senior students broke up the fight and asked them not to behave inappropriately in the college. Later in the night, at 10.30 pm, around 20 senior students came looking for the freshers in the apartment complex near Kottivakkam where they stayed, the officer said. They barged into the rooms of the students on the first floor and started an all-out fight.

The two sides traded punches till the complex security guards stopped the fight. A passer-by who saw the two groups fighting alerted the police. Policemen rushed to the spot and picked up over 30 students for questioning. Police registered cases against three students involved in the incident and later let them off on bail. "We gave them a stern warning," the officer said.

"We will take stringent action against them if they fight and cause a ruckus again." He said police officers spoke to college authorities about the incident. "We have been holding awareness programmes in colleges to stop ragging, but students do not seem to learn," the officer said.

Eight students of Satyajit Ray institute suspended for ragging

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/eight-students-of-satyajit-ray-institute-suspended-for-ragging/article4154360.ece

 Eight students of the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute (SRFTI) here were temporarily expelled from the hostel and academic activities on Saturday following ragging complaints.

 “We received complaints through e-mails earlier this week that first-year students were being ragged by students of second and third year,” said Dipankar Mukherjee, Registrar of SRFTI. “The e-mails were sent to some teachers and to some of the institute members, after which we suspended the eight students whose names were mentioned in those e-mails,” he said

 No need for FIR The authorities have not yet filed any FIR against the eight students. “The situation is under control, there is no need to file FIR against the students,” Mr. Mukherjee said. “Ragging is illegal; so we are forming an inquiry committee in order to investigate the matter in a more comprehensive manner and as soon as we receive the report, we will act accordingly,” he said.

Expulsion notice The eight students were served expulsion notice from hostel and academics till the committee submitted a report. “We are yet to be informed by the hostel-caretaker if the students have vacated their rooms or not,” he said. “The students didn’t harm anyone physically, but only after receiving report from the inquiry panel, can we make any further comments on the matter,” he added.

 Director Sanjay Patnaik, who was attending the International Film Festival of India in Goa, has rushed back in the wake of the incident. Keywords: Satyajit Ray Institute, ragging case, students suspension, Dipankar Mukherjee, International Film Festival of India