Ragging cases in 2009-10: The crackdown has begun

Posted on September 29, 2009 by Shivam Vij

IN 2009-10, educational institutions have started a crackdown on ragging that is unprecedented. Many cases of police complaints have come to light.

  1. 28 July 2009: 19 girl students fine for ragging freshers at the Indian Institute of Information Technology, Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh. Link
  2. 29 July: Law student in Pune, Neeraj Dubey, booked for extortion bid against fresher. Link
  3. 29 July 2009: Three punished for ragging juniors at the Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (GADVASU) in Ludhiana, Punjab. Booked under bailable sections of IPC. Link This despite the college conducting a ‘introduction’ programme to acquaint seniors and juniors. Link
  4. 30 July 2009: 10 Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, students caught ragging in Assi Ghat, fined Rs. 50,000; FIRs lodged. Link
  5. 7 September 2009: Nursing students complain of ragging at a BHU hostel; amongst other things they were “taught manners”. Link
  6. 9 September 2009: First year engineering student stripped and beten with sticks at CITM College in Faridabad, Haryana. Link 1 | Link 2
  7. 15 September 2009: FIR against four seniors of BHU for forcing a fresher to ‘act like a male stripper’ outside university campus. The accused had also forced the fresher to part with Rs. 1,000 and his mobile phone. Link | Link 2
  8. 18 September 2009: 15 agriculture students rusticated at Varanasi’s Udai Pratap Autonomous College. FIR lodged under the UP Anti-Ragging Act 2009. The four students say they had been subjected to mental and physical torture for three months. “They would snatch his money, lock him into a bathroom and beat him up. His bike would also often be snatched.” Two students sent to jail.  Link 1 | Link 2 | Link 3
  9. 21 September 2009: At the MP Shah Medical ollege in Jamnagar, Gujarat, three students take a transfer to another college to escape ragging and a fourth lodges an FIR. The accused senior is rusticated for 2 years. The abuse continued after he had dropped out. Soon after, police trainees in Gujarat are educated about ragging and anti-ragging laws. Link 1 | Link 2 | Link 3
  10. 23 September: Jadavpur University, Kolkata, penalises five students, expelling three of them so they can’t even take admission elsewhere. This was on the basis of a complaint to the anti-ragging squad by five students who said they had been subjected to physical and mental abuse. But the freshers soon claimed they had been forced to make a false complaint, resulting in another enquiry. Link 1 | Link 2
  11. 27 September 2009: Inaction over ragging complaint leads to group clashes on eve of students’ union elections in Utkal University, Bhubaneshwar. Link

JNU revokes rustication order against raggers. Link

(More cases being added)

Filed under: 2009-10, Ragging and the Law | Leave a Comment »

Beaten, tortured, forced to do drugs, wrists slashed with razors

Posted on September 11, 2009 by Shivam Vij

There have been so many ragging incidents coming out in the news, but the media is done with ragging and there’s no hype beyond the singular news report. It would be a mistake to presume that there’s been a spurt in ragging incidents; the spurt has instead been in the reporting of incidents, in punishment and implementation of the law.

A student in Howrah was subjected to the things mentioned in the headline of this post, but it became a news story when the fresher tried to commit sucide by consuming poison. So the headline in the Times of India goes, “Howrah student attempts suicide after ragging“. A reader flipping through news reports could well think, another loser, another victim, another case. The attention is not on the victimiser, the perpetrator.

On Friday, Nayan was waiting at Uluberia station to catch a train home when four seniors grabbed him and took him to a house in the locality, says his uncle. Once inside, the door was barred and the torture began. Nayan was beaten and forced to smoke a cigarette. Then an unknown drug was forced down his throat. When he lay delirious, his wrists were slashed with a razor. Then, one of the seniors asked another to fetch an empty syringe, the FIR says. As Nayan desperately struggled, he was held down and air injected into his left hand.

Surely, the FIR named the four seniors? Why could they not be named in this news report?

The Times report also misses the point, mentioned in the Telegraph report, that the wrist slashing happened because Nayan Adak refused to obey orders to undress and dance. Ragging always does boil down to the fresher’s body, doesn’t it? The Telegraph and Express reports don’t mention names of the four accused either.

Filed under: 2009-10, West Bengal | Leave a Comment »

Are ‘careers’ more important than lives?

Posted on June 9, 2009 by Shivam Vij

Eight years after the Supreme Court of India first banned ragging, Dande Devender Kumar has died of it. It is suspected he committed suicide by jumping onto the railway tracks, adding to the list of those who chose to die rather than live the humiliation of ragging. After hanging oneself on the ceiling fans, dying on the railway tracks is the second most favourite choice of ragging victims.Kumar also left a suicide note.

Kumar was a student of Vasavi Engineering College, Hyderabad, whose administration consoled his parents thus:

When his parents reported the matter to the college and threatened to file a police complaint, the college authorities allegedly begged them not to as it would spoil the careers of those involved. [CNN-IBN]

As for the parents:

“He had been complaining for long. We hoped that the college authorities would take note of it but it did not happen.” [The Hindu]

But what were the parents doing?

News reports: CNN-IBN, The Hindu, Times of India, Press Trust of India, The New Indian Express, ANI

Filed under: 2008-09, Andhra Pradesh, ragging deaths | Tagged: , , , | Leave a Comment »

How raggers deal with difference, or don’t

Posted on June 9, 2009 by Shivam Vij

Tanvir Aeijaz writes from his experience of being part of the sub-committee of the Raghavan Committee that prepared a fact-finding report on the Aman Kachroo case for the Supreme Court:

…not all but some juniors are targeted, as they are perceived as weak, vulnerable and pliant maybe in terms of gender, religion, caste, class and ethnicity. In the case of Aman, it was between modernity and local conservatism. Aman was smart, good looking, having a charismatic personality (won many prizes in the college academic and cultural activities) and, above all, he used to speak English with a tinge of accent (he studied abroad for sometime). All these qualities, particularly the last one, made him vulnerable and weak in the eyes of local goon-students. Being modern and progressive, I realised during my discussion with the medicos there, has its own flip-side, so much so that it renders the putative ‘support structures’ of modern civilised society ‘attack-structures’ for those who dare to think and do things against the conservative mores, culture and lifestyles. [Link]

Filed under: 2008-09, Himachal Pradesh, ragging deaths, research and opinion | Tagged: , | Leave a Comment »

‘Dreadful Ragging at P. C. Chandra School of Business, Kolkata’: Anisha Shekhar

Posted on April 21, 2009 by Shivam Vij

Sir/Madam,

I am writing this letter on behalf of myself (Ms. Anisha Shekhar) and my two friends Mr. Raja Nandy and Mr. Abhijit Das. We were first year MBA students at P. C. Chandra School of Business[ PCCSB], Kolkata, affiliated to Punjab Technical University [PTU] from September 2008 to January 2009. All three of us had to leave the institute due to unbearable mental agony and physical torture inflicted on us by our seniors as part of Ragging.

All the juniors were subjected to harsh ragging by seniors. The principal offenders are Bitopan Borah (Roll No.: 720824005), Joydev Shah (720824012), Debanuj Borah (720824008), Subhankar Pal (810824005). Juniors were often asked to strip their clothes and then lighted cigars were thrown on their bare bodies. The four seniors mentioned above often landed in girl’s hostel (near 1A market, salt lake) in inebriated state. Raja Nandy was punched in the eye by Joydev Shaw. Some juniors including Abhijit Das, was hit and poked with iron sticks in their private areas.

Other forms of Ragging going on at PCCSB are:

· Juniors were asked and made to answer vulgar questions.

· Juniors were forced to drink country liquor.

· Juniors were coerced to do acts with sexual overtones.

· Juniors were forced to look at pornographic movies & pictures.

Complaining to college authorities about these perverted acts was in vain, and they turned a deaf ear to our complaints. The then Administrative officer Mr. Gautam Dan & Admission officer Mr. Jitendra Gadhvi, threatened juniors not to disclose anything about the ragging to outsiders, including PTU officials.

Mr. S. Banik, Director, PCCSB mentioned that all PTU officials are corrupt, so there is no point raising the issue to PTU. Mr. S. Banik even commented to our parents that he has paid around Rs 1,00,000/- in cash to Mr. Gautam Banerjee, Regional Head, PTU for marketing purposes of UCPL Group.

Later, we came to know that PCCSB takes donation (around Rs 50,000/-) from the rich students who involve themselves in ragging. So the college is not in a position to take action against offenders.

We have lost one academic year and have paid Rs 74,000/- (Rs 20,000 + Rs 54,000/-) as fees. We have made subsequent requests to the present Administrative officer, Mr Biswajit Sen to refund a portion of our course fees, but without any response.

PCCSB is bringing disgrace to the esteemed PTU. Kindly take appropriate action from your end against the offenders mentioned in this letter and also against PCCSB authorities, according to the National Anti-Ragging Act, to stop recurrence of such incidents in future.

If needed after proper investigation, consider disaffiliating P. C. Chandra School of Business [LC : 824] for failing to curb ragging and non-compliance to university rules and regulations.

It may hereby be mentioned that we are soon going to start appropriate legal action (both civil and criminal) against PCCSB, with PTU being made a party.

Yours sincerely,

ANISHA SHEKHAR

Filed under: 2008-09, girls ragging, letters and petitions | Tagged: , , | 3 Comments »

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