Six medical students suspended for ‘ragging freshers’ at Saharanpur college

“There has been an incident in which some senior students entered the hostel of junior students forcibly with an intention of ragging. We have taken cognizance of the matter and action has been taken. We have suspended six senior students from the academic and hostel premises for three months along with imposing a fine on them,” said college principal Arvind Trivedi.

“Last year too, when an incident of ragging took place, we took strict action and rusticated 51 students. This is not an instance of negligence from the staff but an act of recklessness from the senior students. We have taken serious action against them and this will send a message,” he added.

According to a college staffer, on Tuesday night a few 2018 batch students went to the junior student hostel which is separated from the senior hostel. There the seniors first allegedly asked the juniors to sing songs and later dance on that song, he added.

“Meanwhile, the matter could have been turned worse, but a few doctors got to know about it and caught two of the seniors while the others managed to escape. Other senior students involved were later identified. The matter then reached the principal and action was taken against them,” added a source at the college.

Last year, some students of 2016-2017 batch had beaten up and cut the hair of their juniors. Complaints against the students by their juniors were found to be true by the anti-ragging committee and more than 50 students were rusticated at the time. This year, the new batch joined the college in August itself. The college has nearly 400 MBBS students at present.

Station officer (SO) of Sarsawan police station, Pramod Kumar said they got information about the ragging incident but no official complaint has been given to them in this regard.

“After we got to know about the incident, we contacted the principa,l who said that six students have suspended for three months. Action against the students has been taken at the college level and no case has been lodged with us,” he said.