[DCEite]

The Himachal Pradesh police on Tuesday booked four senior medical students for causing the death of a first semester student on Sunday by ragging and severely beating him up in a government medical college in the hill state's Kangra district.

The victim, 19-year-old Aman Kachru, died Sunday - a few hours after being ragged late Saturday by four final year students of the Rajindra Prasad Medical College at Tanda town, 20 km from the district headquarter town of Kangra.

Police officials said here that Kachru died of head and other injuries sustained after being beaten up by drunk seniors during ragging.

Himachal Inspector General of Police (Law and Order) SR Mardi told IANS that a case of murder (Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code) had been registered against the four senior students.

They had earlier been booked for culpable homicide (Section 304) by the police.

"After receiving the postmortem report, the case has been converted to that of murder. Two have been arrested while two others are still absconding," Mardi said.

The students arrested are Ajay Verma and Naveen Verma, Deputy Superintendent of Police OP Jamwal said.

Abhinav Verma and Mukul Sharma were absconding, he added.

Though the victim gave a complaint to the college authorities and the police after being beaten up, both reacted to it only after he died under mysterious circumstances. The role of the local police and the hospital authorities is under the scanner for not having reacted till the victim died.

Himachal Health Minister Rajiv Bindal said that a magisterial probe had been ordered into the incident.

"We will take strict action against the senior students who indulged in ragging and anyone else who showed laxity in curbing ragging. If a murder case has to registered against the senior students, it will be done on the basis of the postmortem report," Bindal told IANS earlier.

Medical College principal S Sankhyan offered to resign from his post following the incident.

He said that all the four senior students had been suspended from the college for two years.

The hostel warden, Pradeep Bansal, and hostel manager, Deepak Verma, were suspended by the college authorities Monday.

At least 13 other first semester students were ragged by their seniors in clear violation of Supreme Court guidelines which make ragging a crime and their complaint with the college authorities did not lead to any action to end their suffering.

The Tanda medical college has been infamous in this peaceful hill state for illegal ragging and other activities by senior students. Even state government doctors fear being posted in this college.

Kachru, whose family originally hails from Jammu and Kashmir but is now settled in Gurgaon, was a brilliant student, family members said. His father is a doctor in Tanzania.

Source: Himachal medical students booked for murder after ragging junior to death- Hindustan Times

[amohit]

This sucks!

Ragging, when done in a very different light, do generate lot of long term fond memories, apart from breaking the ice between seniors and juniors.

May be, just may be for once, authorities should look for something different rather than just banning anything and everything that has the potential of harming others.
Regards,

[Nitin]

Read about it this morning. Horrendous stuff!!
Ragging should be banned, and anyone caught in the act should be thrashed black & blue.
There are many other ways to break the ice between seniors & freshers.Ragging is just not justified, in what ever capacity it may be.

A ear for a ear, and eye for an eye. I wish those rascals meet the same fate!

[aaggoswami]

THIS IS FROM A COLLEGE STUDENT ( i.e. ME ).

Ragging just shows what type of humans we are from within.
Senior and junior are the worst words possible in any field ( applies to even those doing jobs ).
Its basically the cheapness that is in DNA from parents.
When I was in Vallabh Vidyanagar ( near Anand ), I have faced this and its horrible. Being of good build and mental strength, I managed to beat down that bad guy, but things do go worse than this.

Generally people cry from within and this leaves some permanent scars on the person for the entire life. I have seen harrassing of girls and what not. So much so that I doubt the students' parents background and culture. There are methods to control this, but we know what we are.

I had some frineds who were out of station for studies and the stories they told me gave me shock.
As a student I have never supported ragging of any form. No one is above me, neither I am below anyone. I know if I plan to study more, again this issue will come up but I am not going to give up.

Anybody who is caught doing ragging must be shot dead. Hitler was bad in one way, but his words were " Power flows from the barrel of the gun ".
I know many stories of how people are harrassed but I cannot put up on this forum.

@mods: I am sorry for such an agressive and rude post, but its just my feelings and as a college student myself, I know what the core is.

[psynaps3]

I hope that all the accused be put behind bars for the rest of their life with no option for bail. And by no chance should these people end up becoming doctors!

[ImmortalZ]

We were 26 first years in a college 500KM from home and had the naive expectation of the senior mallus to be helpful. Suffice to say, we beat them into a pulp at the bus stop near college in second year. The fine and suspension I got? I wear it with pride.

That should explain my attitude towards ragging.

[BenjiRoss]

The problem is that almost all colleges have accepted ragging as a part of life. All students too have accepted it as a part of life. All professors have accepted it as a part of life.
The principle followed is "It happened to me, so it should happen to you too"
Which when applied could also mean "I got abused by my parents as a child, so let me abuse my children" or "I got injured by a rash driver in an accident, so let me go around injuring others on the road". very scary and unethical.
Colleges seem to accept that "If it is within limits its OK". But what limits?

Ways to decrease this problem:
1. Any student who is guilty of any form of ragging however small should get dismissed and can not get admitted in any college for say 3-5 years
2. A criminal case should be filed and punishment should be appropriate (assault, attempt to murder, creating social nuisance, etc etc). They are not minors and should face jails and verdicts in line with convicts of terrorists or goondas!
3. Surprise checks by independant agencies and police in secret especially when new students join.
4. Action against college authorities who let it happen (even if it is not directly their fault as claimed).

There is no difference between ragging and terrorism.
There is no difference between ragging and rape.
There is no difference between ragging and child abuse.

"Chalta hai" has just claimed another victim today!
The words of the victimes father were very true.
"The nation will be shocked. And in six months it will be forgotten. Then another girl or boy will have a problem. The nation will be shockec. Then it will be forgotten"
This is not the first time that this is happening.

Finally - I wonder how many on this forum can actually honestly say they never indulged in ragging when in college. This is just a query to really examine the source of the problem.

[greenhorn]

ha ha, something like that happened to us as well. a bunch of guys from first year pretending to be seniors ended up ragging a final year guy by accident. turned out into a full fledged strike and a fight , and the first years kicked their collective asses. We didnt have any problems from the seniors after that

PS: I still do maintain that ragging , when done right is a very good excercise. I mean, I wouldnt have gotten a legitimate excuse to strip and run half naked in front of the entire electronics department otherwise

the problem starts when people who do it go too far/the people who recieve it are too sensitive. There once was this guy who lost it when we just asked him his name and went running to his staff adviser. Jeez!

And then there was this other guy. Somebody asked him if He'd ever drunk alcohol. He was like, "yeah, I've drunk beer, DRY"

We were all

[hillram]

Yet another Ragging death.Where is our college education heading too.
I have a son who will one day go to college and Im scared to send him to college in India.

[benbsb29]

Originally Posted by hillram

I have a son who will one day go to college and Im scared to send him to college in India.

Whats the guarantee he wouldn't end up with a bullet through him, if he's in the US?!

I dont mean to be rude or insensitive, but we should address the problem, not run away from it.

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by hillram

I have a son who will one day go to college and Im scared to send him to college in India.

Are you under the impression that this happens only in India?

Survey: College hazing still widespread - Education- msnbc.com

Ragging was there in my college too, but since I was not staying in hostel, I escaped the worst. I got away with mild harassment in day time.

The best part was when I was once stopped by a bunch of 2nd year students. After getting grilled with silly questions for 10 minutes, I said I would be late for class and told I will move on. That got them angry and one of them asked whose class. I named the prof, and one smart guy jumped in to say that prof doesn't teach 1st year. I slowly turned towards him and told him I never said I was from first year. They didn't believe me, then I showed my final card ID card. Their face was worth seeing.

However, ragging should never be allowed to get physical. Such brutes should be prosecuted criminally for assault.

[esteem_lover]

Future doctors/surgeons on drinking binges getting physical enough to take a life. Just wonder what will these freaks become in 10-20 years' time !

[aaggoswami]

Originally Posted by benbsb29

Whats the guarantee he wouldn't end up with a bullet through him, if he's in the US?!

I dont mean to be rude or insensitive, but we should address the problem, not run away from it.

The police and the judicial system is not this much corrupt as it is in India. My cousin faced this, called up police and escaped the worst.
Try doing the same in India and you will come to know what the reality is and the extent to which things have downgraded.

Other cousin who is brother of the one I have mentioned here, was at Jamnagar Medical college. He was slapped many times without reason while he was walking in corridor or having a cup of tea in canteen.
He was once literally thrown out of canteen.
Police, officers, officials, etc. nothing helped and only made the matters worse.
My sister also faced the same as she had to travel for 36 kms in bus daily.
In the bus ragging used to happen.
I had a physical fight at Vidyanagar college and one so called rector of girl's hostel knew senior student whom I beat up. He followed me for around 6 kms., then I beat him up. People say I broke his wrist and jaw, but I dont care.

This the extent to which the culture in families have degraded. Basically if good culutre is followed at homes and parents are moral, this generally does not happen, but the reality happens to be different in India and I am certainly not proud to be Indian.

This reminds me of another case where a student was made to do pushups for long, so much so that finally his kidneys were damaged and damage was done to his internal organs.

We call this education. Tell parents and they say " its OK, the world faced it and you too face this ". There is no solution to this problem and rather than getting worries, what one needs is strenght to fight this out. Again in India, the good voice will never come up.

[SS-Traveller]

Originally Posted by BenjiRoss

The problem is that almost all colleges have accepted ragging as a part of life. All students too have accepted it as a part of life. All professors have accepted it as a part of life.

Oh no. Absolutely not. No medical college faculty or administration accepts "ragging as a part of life" today. The senior students do try to break the rules every so often, and senior faculty have to be extremely proactive in preventing such incidents. The incident being highlighted is a sad one, and IMHO there would have been a long-term serious administrative lapse on the part of the principal and hostel wardens to let this happen.

The Tanda medical college has been infamous in this peaceful hill state for illegal ragging and other activities by senior students.

Suspension of the hostel warden and hostel manager is a quick way to make them disappear, and was probably ordered by the principal to save them from arrest - while he himself offered to resign in an attempt to absolve himself from directly being linked to the crime.

Also, please note that this is a GOVERNMENT medical college, where such an incident as this would be swept under the carpet by the state govt. to save the face of the Health Department. The police are hesitant to act against government employees, and "you scratch my back and I scratch yours" goes on behind the scenes. In a private college, the repercusssions would be far more serious for both the principal as well as the administration.

[trrk]

Hi,

Originally Posted by ImmortalZ

and had the naive expectation of the senior mallus to be helpful.

The fellow Keralites ragged me the most when I was in medical college.

I am proud to say that I did not rag anybody - junior or senior. The common answer to why a person rags another was ' I was ragged and so I am doing it'.

Ragging should be strictly banned and if done handled mercilessly.