"Seniors Spat Into Water Glass, Removed Shirt": Another Ragging Case In Kerala College

A student of a government college here has made allegations of brutal ragging, claiming that he was targeted by senior students.

Bins Jose, a first-year biotechnology student at Karyavattom Government College, alleged on Tuesday that he was assaulted, harassed, and threatened by a group of seven senior students on February 11 on the campus.

Sources said all the seven accused students were suspended till the completion of the investigation based on the findings of the college’s internal anti-ragging cell.

The shocking incident came to light in the wake of widespread public outcry in Kerala over the brutal physical assault on a junior nursing student at the Government Nursing College in Kottayam.

Jose said he had lodged a complaint with the police and the college authorities on the day of the assault itself.

“The incident happened when my friend Abhishek and I were walking through the campus. Then a group of seniors stopped us and started beating me. My friend managed to run away from there and went to inform the principal,” he told the media here on Tuesday.

The victim student accused the seniors of beating him with a bamboo pole and also using a belt.

“I was then taken to the unit room and locked up there. My shirt was removed, and they made me kneel. When I asked for water to drink, one of the senior students spat into a half glass of water and gave it,” Jose recalled the harrowing experience on the day.

He also alleged that the senior students threatened him with dire consequences if he told anyone about the incident. They also forced him to file a complaint against his friend, saying it was he who had beaten him up.

Kazhakoottam Police said they had already registered a case into the incident on February 11 based on various sections of the BNS including rioting, wrongful confinement, and restriction, and so on.

“As per the provisions of the Kerala Prohibition of Ragging Act 1998, we submitted a request to the unit head of the college (Principal) to submit us a report after carrying out an inquiry whether any ragging had happened in the institution as stated in the complaint,” a police officer said.

The principal submitted a report in this regard on Monday confirming that the issues mentioned in the student’s complaint are correct. “As soon as we received the report, we added the ragging sections also in the case,” he said.

A report regarding the incident would be submitted to the court soon, and further actions would be followed, the official added.

Meanwhile, the Congress-led UDF opposition on Tuesday strongly condemned the ragging incident in the government college in Karyavattom and alleged that activists of the Students Federation of India (SFI), the students wing of the ruling CPI(M), were behind the act.

“The manner in which the SFI activists behaved to the first year student was just horrifying to hear,” UDF convenor M M Hassan said.

He accused the police of being initially reluctant to impose ragging charges based on the victim’s complaint.

In a statement, he further charged that the SFI is facilitating the spread of drug menace on college campuses in the state and sought to brand its activists as criminals and ban the Left outfit. 

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