An incident of ragging in the Government Medical College in Telangana’s Suryapet has come to light, where a first-year medical student has alleged that a few second-year students kept him confined in their room for nearly two hours. The student has alleged that the seniors physically assaulted him, threatened to trim his hair and even asked him to strip on camera. State Health Minister T Harish Rao said that the incident has come to the government’s notice, and a committee has been constituted to probe the incident.
An FIR has been registered over the incident, which took place on the night of January 1, in Suryapet I Town police station. Suryapet DSP (Deputy Superintendent of Police) Mohan Kumar said that four to five second-year students were named in the FIR.
“Director of Medical Education (DME) Ramesh Reddy has been directed to constitute a committee to find out whether ragging happened, and who was responsible. The committee has been asked to submit their report by the afternoon of January 3. If such an incident really happened, the culprits will be punished severely. The government will take strict action to prevent such incidents from recurring,” Minister Harish Rao said.
In a voice recording that was broadcast on TV5, the first-year medical student is heard saying that he was confined by the seniors in their room for nearly two hours and mentally harassed. He alleged that he was made to kneel down the entire time, and told to keep his arms folded. “They said awful abusive things. One of them hit me on the ear and punched me in the stomach. Whatever they did, I was asked to keep my arms folded.” He also alleged that when the seniors realised he was trying to record the incident, they seized his phone and deleted the recordings. “Then, they made me unlock my WhatsApp, looked into my personal messages and passed comments. The windows and door were closed. They were drinking alcohol and the room was filled with cigarette smoke. I couldn't bear the smell,” he said.
The first-year student also said that as his hair kept falling on his face, the seniors even took out a trimmer and said they would cut his hair. “Since I am a little popular for making Instagram reels, they mocked me for it. They all took out their phone cameras and asked me to strip. I begged them to stop,” the student said. He said that on requesting many times, he was finally allowed to use the restroom after two hours, accompanied by a senior. “I managed to escape on the way back, locked myself inside a room, took someone’s phone and called my father, who called the police,” the student said.
Sharada, the principal of the college, said that as soon as the incident came to their notice, senior doctors went to the hostel, and the victim was handed over to his parents the next morning.
“The boy said he was made to kneel down and was slapped. From what we noticed, there were no major injuries,” she said, adding that there had reportedly been differences between the students in the past. “A committee has been constituted to investigate the incident to determine if it was an instance of ragging or happened due to personal differences. If the seniors are found guilty, we will take action against them,” she added.