The Gulbarga police on Friday arrested three senior female students for allegedly ragging a Dalit girl Ashwathy, who hails from Kerala.

Lakshmi, Athira and Krishna, all students of Al-Qamar college of nursing in Gulbarga, were arrested and remanded in judicial custody on Friday night.

Gulbarga SP N Shashikumar told The News Minute that the accused were arrested from the college hostel after questioning. “We have got evidence against the accused and arrested them immediately. The investigation team was in the process of going to their native places to arrest them, but they returned to the college hostel on Friday,” he added.

The police are making efforts to trace Shilpa, who is the fourth accused in the case. The SP further informed that there are only four accused in the case, as the fifth name mentioned in the FIR was in fact the surname of one of the accused.

Dalit student Ashwathy, a 19-year-old native of Edappal in Malappuram district of Kerala was allegedly ragged by a group of senior students at her college hostel on May 9. In her complaint, she alleged that she was forced to drink toilet cleaning liquid phenyl, following which her food pipe was severely damaged.

After being admitted to a number of hospitals in Gulbarga and Kerala, Ashwathy is currently undergoing treatment at Kozhikode medical college.

College principal Eshther had dismissed the allegations of ragging and claimed that Ashwathy attempted suicide owing to family problems. However, the investigation team has found lapses on the part of the college in not informing the police about the incident. “The college should have informed the nearest police station about the incident, but they failed to do so. Action will be taken against the college authorities,” Shashikumar said.

Meanwhile, The Hindu reports that the Kerala State Commission for Women has written to the Women’s Commission of Karnataka stating that there had been serious negligence on the part of the Karnataka police.