News Reports - 2

Kottayam, Wednesday, February 25, 2009

http://keralaonline.com/news/sme-ragging-court-convicts-3_23094.html

Special Court Judge K Shasidharan Nair today convicted three students in connection with the ragging and sexual assault on a 17-year-old nursing student of the School of Medical Education (SME) other four to nine accused were let off. Earlier, the pronouncement of verdict was deferred by the Court yesterday.

Earlier, as per the prosecution, six of the accused had sexually assaulted a first year nursing student in the name of ragging and three accused tried to destroy evidence and engaged in criminal conspiracy to cover up the incident.

According to Superintendent of Police S. Sreejith, the nine accused are Renjith Varghese, Sherin, Shefique Yusuf, Ashly Varghese, Robin Paul, Divin Philip (all third year nursing students at SME) SME principal K.M. Mariam, director Muraleedharan and head of the Department of Psychiatry at Kottayam Medical College Dr. Zybunneesa Beevi.

The first six of the accused have been charge sheeted under sections 376 (2g), 342, 354, 366(a), 328 and 506(2) of Indian Penal Code.
The SME principal, director and head of the Department of Psychiatry have been charge sheeted under sections 120(b), 201, 202 and 218.
In addition, the accused have been charge sheeted under provisions of the anti-ragging act also.
The case was registered on November 12, 2005 and the investigation was completed within 65 days.



New Delhi, Monday, March 16, 2009

http://www.kolkatamirror.com/index.aspx?page=article&sectid=14&contentid=20090316200903161201317948cf6516&sectxslt=

Supreme Court today sought a response from the principal and registrar of a Himachal Pradesh medical college as to why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against them for the death of student Aman Kachroo allegedly due to ragging.

A bench of justices Arijit Pasayat and Asok Kumar Ganguly also sought a detailed report from the Andhra Pradesh government on the incident in which a girl student of Bapatla Agricultural and Engineering College had attempted suicide after she was allegedly forced to dance nude by seniors.

19-year-old Kachroo died on March 8 after he was allegedly beaten up by four of his seniors at the Rajendra Prasad Medical College in Kangra. The accused have been arrested.

The apex court asked the two state governments to file their response within two weeks and posted the matter to March 30.

The Court passed the directions after additional solicitor general and amicus curiae Gopal Subramaniam mentioned the two incidents of ragging before the bench.

He submitted that two incidents indicated that the authorities failed to implement the earlier directions of the apex court to put down ragging incidents with an iron hand. (PTI)


Kolkata, Thursday, April 09, 2009: By Tasmayee Laha Roy
Protest taken off at JU

http://www.kolkatamirror.com/index.aspx?page=article&sectid=13&contentid=20090409200904091902232085e28813e&sectxslt=


JU student union calls off gherao in protest that punishment given to student caught ragging was too harsh after authorities stick to statement
Jadavpur University student union ended a 25-hour gherao of the chancellor and pro-VC on April 9 with authorities refusing to retract their statement that any student guilty of ragging would be punished.

The union had protested that the six-month suspension given to a student accused of ragging was “too harsh” given the “victim did not sustain serious injuries”.

The extent of the victim’s injuries is not known.

The Executive Council stated that mechanical engineering student Rajib Das would not be allowed to participate any academic activity after he was found ragging first-year student Kamal Krishna Haldar of the international relations department.

A showcause notice was issued to Das. The student produced a letter to the committee at the Executive Council’s meeting held at 2 pm on April 8. It is learnt that Das confessed to ragging Haldar in a letter, but also sent an application seeking exclusion from the punishment. The committee refused to change its decision.
This decision sparked a 25-hour gherao by the student union that ended on April 9 with college officials stating that their decision is final. The pro vice-chancellor and chancellor remained at the institute overnight when the Executive Council announced that it was sticking to its decision.

Siddharth Dutta, pro-vice chancellor, Jadavpur University said: “We are following the orders of the Supreme Court and rules laid down by UGC, anyone ragging in college shall be punished severely. We are also planning to form an anti ragging committee in line with recommendations by the Raghaban Committee, the committee shall have members of the police, NGOs, media and non teaching and teaching staff of Jadavpur University.”



14 March 2009, New Delhi: Ragging becoming organised crime

http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=14870271

Despite a Supreme Court directive to colleges to curb ragging, the scourge that most recently caused the death of a medical student and led another to attempt suicide, continues to terrorise hundreds across the country, with many brutal cases going unreported.

Society Against Violence in Education (SAVE), the country's only registered anti-ragging NGO, calculated that nine teenagers are killed every year due to ragging while hundreds of them get seriously injured, hospitalised or disabled due to ragging by their seniors in colleges.

Ragging death: 4 expelled from Himachal college

"We observed a pattern of ragging in colleges after analysing the ragging complaints registered with us. We found that sexual and physical abuse has become rampant in colleges and students get a kind of sadistic pleasure in ragging," Kashal Banerjee, founder president of the NGO, said.
In February this year, taking serious note of an alarming rise in incidents of ragging in educational institutions across the country, the Supreme Court accepted the recommendations of the KR Raghavan Committee to curb the menace.

Despite the apex court's direction to all educational institutions to take stringent anti-ragging measures, including slapping criminal cases against erring students, ragging incidents remain unchecked in the country. Interestingly, there are several communities on social networking sites where ideas are invited for ragging freshers.

"Ragging is an organised crime as students prepare months before the new academic year starts. Students invite ideas on networking sites like Orkut for ragging juniors," said Banerjee.

Medical student ragged and killed in Himachal

A 2007 report by an anti-ragging group Coalition to Uproot Ragging from Education (CURE), which analysed 64 ragging complaints, found that over 60 per cent of these were related to physical ragging and 20 percent were sexual in nature.

Within a week two horrendous ragging incident were reported - Aman Kachru died Sunday after being ragged by four final year students of the Rajendra Prasad Medical College in Himachal Pradesh. Police said he died of head injuries and other wounds.

In another incident a girl student of agriculture engineering in Andhra Pradesh attempted suicide after her hostel mates allegedly made her dance nude as part of ragging. Raghavan, a former CBI director, in his report said that the menace of ragging has assumed alarming proportions as freshers are subjected to torture, extortion and harassment by seniors with a criminal bent of mind. He also said that the medical colleges are the worst affected in India.
"We used to have two ragging sessions per day and were asked to do everything starting from washing used vessels to dancing nude on a table. And, we never dared to make a complaint to the authorities as it would have further increased trouble for us," said Naveen Tentiwal, an electrical engineering student, an alumnus of a reputed engineering college in Kolkata.

Supreme Court terms ragging as human rights abuse

Many students even drop out of colleges after being ragged. "I withdrew my son from an engineering college in Bihar after he was ragged by his seniors. He was so scared that he ran away from the college and said he will die if he continues to stay there. For the next one year he was so depressed that he did not join any college and was being given regular counselling," said Ranjita Mishra, mother of a ragging victim.

Anti-ragging experts and psychiatrists feel that it is not stringent laws but awareness and involvement of civil society that can check the menace. "I think there is no perfect remedy and the law alone cannot stop ragging in colleges. We need to spread awareness among students and civil society to curtail the menace, Banerjee added.

Psychiatrist Sameer Parikh feels that violent behaviour among college students could be because of uncontrolled anger or to make a style statement. "Many times students feel that they were ragged and so they have a right to rag their juniors. Ragging is acceptable when it is mutually acceptable in a light way but students often forget that their act could take somebody's life which is really unacceptable," Parikh said.



Court ragging rap on colleges
New Delhi, March 16: By SAMANWAYA RAUTRAY

http://telegraphindia.com/1090317/jsp/frontpage/story_10678158.jsp

The Supreme Court today came down on two colleges where ragging had reportedly led to a death and a suicide attempt this month.

The court asked them why they shouldn’t face contempt cases for failing to introduce anti-ragging measures it had ordered every educational institution and every state government to follow.

The court asked Andhra Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh, where the two colleges are situated, to declare through their chief secre- taries what they had done so far to comply with its orders on ragging. It directed the two states’ police chiefs to file action-taken reports on the cases.
At the Dr Rajendra Prasad Government Medical College in Tanda, Himachal, Aman Kachroo, 19, died of a burst eardrum after being beaten by four seniors amid allegations that the principal had tried to shield the accused.

At the Government Agriculture Engineering College in Bapatla, Andhra, a 20-year-old girl attempted suicide after allegedly being forced to dance naked by five seniors.
As amicus curiae Gopal Subramanium drew the court’s attention to the incidents, the court said: “Our apprehensions have come true. It appears the concerns expressed by this court in its orders of 2007 and 2009 have not been taken seriously.”

It added: “This prima facie amounts to contempt of court as it is a serious defiance of this court’s orders.”

Among the anti-ragging measures the court suggested are:
College prospectuses must make it clear that anyone found ragging would be expelled. Institutions must hand out “exemplary” and “harsh” punishment for ragging
If the victim or his guardians are unhappy with the punishment, the college must file an FIR or face negligence charges.



UGC seeks report on ‘ragging’
Statesman News Service
NEW DELHI, Oct. 5

http://www.thestatesman.net/page.arcview.php?clid=2&id=199794&usrsess=1

The University Grants Commission (UGC) today sought a report from the capital’s prestigious St Stephen’s College following reports that a student suffered burn injuries in an alleged ragging incident. The UGC has also issued instructions to all colleges and universities to take preventive measures against ragging.

“The UGC will write to the college authorities seeking details of the incident. We will also ask them to take necessary action in this regard,” the UGC chairman, Mr Sukhdeo Thorat, said.
Deepayan Mukherjee, a chemistry (honours) student hailing from Kolkata, suffered burn injuries on 27 September after four “inebriated” seniors allegedly sprayed deodorant and threw a burning matchstick on him.

According to college officials it was “not a case of ragging” and they were treating the matter as a “closed chapter” as the victim has no complaints. The college has suspended four second-year students allegedly involved in the incident. “It is treated as a closed chapter. Neither the person affected by it nor his father or mother has any complaints,” said the principal, Mr Valson Thampu.

Mr Rajendra Prasad, a member of the Raghavan Committee that framed guidelines for dealing with ragging cases, however, said that it appeared to be a case of “severe ragging” as there are marks of injuries on the knees and hands of the student. The victim’s father, Mr Jiban Chakrabarty, said he was satisfied with the college authorities for punishing the culprits. “But at the same time, college officials have to explore more avenues so that such incident do not recur,” he said.