Case Filed Against 12 Over Ragging Junior In College In Assam

A case has been lodged against 12 people by a premier college in Assam's Jorhat district on allegations of ragging raised by a junior hostel inmate and pressurising him to withdraw a complaint against them, a police officer said on Friday.

The police have started an investigation though no arrests have been made thus far, he said.

The principal of Jagannath Barooah (JB) College had filed a complaint at Jorhat Police Station on Thursday against the 12 accused based on a written submission from the aggrieved student.

The case comes close on the heels of two instances of alleged ragging in Dibrugarh.

Giving details of the J B College incident, the police officer said, "We received the complaint on Thursday evening. After going through it, we lodged an FIR today." The FIR has named eight present and one former students of the institute as among the accused for indulging in ragging.

Another three persons have been named for allegedly pressuring the student to withdraw his initial complaint to the college authorities.

The college authorities said the student in the first semester of the three-year degree course had approached the Syed Abdul Malik Hostel authorities in early September with a complaint of "facing an uncomfortable situation" in the hostel. The student has since then left the hostel.

The decision to file the FIR was taken as the student re-approached the authorities three days back, they said.

The anti-ragging committee of the college has also been entrusted with probing the matter and it will submit its report within seven to 10 days, the college authorities added.

In the Dibrugarh University incident, which took place on November 26, a student of M.Com first-semester was tortured brutally following which he jumped from the second floor of the hostel to save himself from ragging and is currently undergoing treatment at a local hospital there. The student underwent a spinal cord operation on Thursday.

Four students of the varsity were rusticated for three years, while 18 others were expelled. Police have already arrested five seniors and a search is on to nab the others.

In the second incident, two doctors studying post-graduation at Assam Medical College were suspended from attending classes for six months and expelled from the hostel for allegedly indulging in ragging.

With multiple cases of ragging coming to light, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Thursday said the government will act tough to eliminate the menace of ragging from society.

He said a drive will soon be launched to ensure that all former students staying illegally in college and university hostels are made to leave the premise, which, he maintained, will stop 60 per cent of ragging cases.

If college and university administrations and police work together, ragging incidents will be controlled, the chief minister had said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)