An 18-year-old student was brutally assaulted by his seniors in Sathupally Khammam on Tuesday over a Facebook message. The victim, Shiva Ganesh, a second-year student, is pursuing Diploma in Agriculture course at Mother Teresa Institute of Science and Technology.
He was assaulted by third-year students — Afridi, Maniteja and Saikiran who are pursuing electrical engineering.
According to Sathupally police, a month ago, Shiva Ganesh had wrongly sent a message to Afridi instead of his friend via Facebook messenger. The message had some abusive words.
After a confrontation, the victim had apologised to Afridi. However, they weren’t convinced.
Speaking to TNM, Sathupally CI Suresh, said, “The victim had apologised almost immediately after realising his mistake, but these seniors bore a grudge and were waiting for an opportunity to take revenge. When they learnt that Shiva has a class to attend they picked him up, took him to an abandoned place near the college and thrashed him.”
The incident occurred at around 3 pm, the CI said. Following the incident, the victim had complained to the college principal who subsequently sought police intervention in the case.
Based on Shiva’s complaint, police have registered a case against the accused under Prohibition of Ragging Act.
The Inspector said that the accused would be offered counselling.
As per the Andhra Pradesh Prohibition of Ragging in All Education Institutions Rules, 2002, a student convicted of ragging would be punished with an imprisonment for a term of more than six months and shall not be admitted in any other educational institution.
The guidelines also ask the institutions to constitute a proctorial committee consisting of senior faculty members to keep a vigil and prevent such instances, and to also put up posters in the college premises making students aware about the dehumanising effect of ragging.