Five final year MBBS students held for ragging freshman

Five final-year MBBS students at the ESI Medical College, Rajajinagar, have been arrested for ragging a fresher from the Scheduled Caste community.

The victim was subject to ragging at the college hostel in Rajajinagar since the last five months, but things took an ugly turn on December 24.

Speaking to DH, the 19-year-old victim from Maharashtra said ever since he joined the hostel in the first week of August, the accused started ragging him and several juniors.

The seniors had issued orders which these juniors had to follow, like not wearing a sweater during winter, wishing the seniors when they were around and also bringing them water, liquor, cigarettes etc.

“On December 24, I was in the dining hall, having my dinner, when the seniors came and I couldn’t wish them. They got angry and picked up an argument. I responded strongly. The same night around 10 pm, they came drunk and started banging my door while I was in deep sleep. As soon as I opened the door, one of them slapped me,” the victim said.

“I went inside and sat on the bed, but they dragged me out and abused me using foul language. Later they took me to the terrace and abused my father, mother, sister and also said that, since I am from a lower caste, I am not eligible to study MBBS. Then they cut my hair, stripped me and forced me to stand in front of them. Later they said if I refuse to obey their orders, this is what is going to happen,” he said.

“Since it was unberable, I decided to file a complaint with the police so that it could save others,” the victim added.

The accused are Karan Sharma from Rajasthan, Gautham from Madhya Pradesh, Rahul Jha from New Delhi, Shubhav from Uttar Pradesh and Indrajith from Uttarakhand.

The police are yet to arrest three other batchmates of the accused. Those arrested were produced before the magistrate and remanded to judicial custody after interrogation.

A senior police officer said: “All accused have confessed to the crime and we are trying to ascertain if other students were harassed. We have obtained the CCTV footage which revealed that the accused were involved in such activities around the hostel premises.”

“Instructions have been given to college authorities to provide protection to the victims,” he added.

The Rajajinagar police booked the accused under the Karnataka Education Act, SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and IPC Sections 341 (Punishment for wrongful restraint), 506 (Punishment for criminal intimidation), 504 (Intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) and other sections.

RGUHS to conduct probe

Speaking to DH, RGUHS vice-chancellor Dr S Sachidananda said: “We have asked for a report from the principal. We will be submitting it to the Anti-ragging Cell, Delhi. After the strict norms were put in place, ragging cases have reduced drastically. We had also asked all our affiliated colleges to take strict action against ragging and have their own Anti-ragging Cells. However, this looks strange. Since the matter is before the police, we will have to wait for their report. We will also conduct an internal inquiry.”