- Tuesday, December 24, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
A GROUP of junior students studying in a government medical college in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh has accused some of their seniors of subjecting them to ragging.
The complainants are MBBS students of the Mahatma Gandhi Medical College in Indore who have moved the anti-ragging helpline of the University Grants Commission (UGC), a statutory body under India’s ministry of education that maintains higher education in the country saying the accused seniors forced them to pretend to have sex with pillows and abused their female classmates.
The horrific incident is said to have happened in the apartments of the senior students adjacent to the college campus.
The matter came to the fore when the students filed a complaint with the anti-ragging helpline. They also alleged that the seniors forced them to take the name of a female classmate and make derogatory remarks about her and slap each other. They also said that their mobile phones were snatched and they were compelled to do sit-ups.
The UGC, which follows zero tolerance for ragging, immediately forwarded the complaint to the college administration and the medical college’s anti-ragging cell carried out a preliminary investigation and found that the allegations were true. The police were subsequently contacted.
The detailed complaint made to the UGC includes evidence in the form of audio and video recordings, including WhatsApp chat which is linked to ragging and torture of junior students, official sources said.
A first information report was filed on Sunday (24) against some of the accused senior students under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and Anti-Ragging Act 2009.
“We’re recording statements of all the students concerned at the medical college, on the basis of which the accused seniors will be identified,” a local police officer was quoted as saying by reports.
