Seven engineering students from the PSG College of Technology on Avinashi Road in Tamil Nadu’s Coimbatore have been apprehended by the police for allegedly ragging a junior student, disrobing him, and tonsuring his head inside the college hostel. The brutal attack occurred on Monday, November 6, and the accused have been identified as Dharanitharan, Venkatesh, Madhavan, Mani, Ayyappan, Santhosh, and Yalish. Dharanitharan and Venkatesh are second-year students, while Madhavan and Mani are in their third year. The rest of the accused are in their final year of engineering.
The victim, Rubak Varma, is a first-year engineering student at the college who hails from the Tiruppur district and stays in the college hostel. Reportedly on Monday evening, the accused students demanded money from him to buy liquor. When he refused, they thrashed him and brought him to their room. They then allegedly locked him up until Tuesday morning and attacked him, stripping him naked and tonsuring his head with a trimmer. The act was allegedly also recorded on their phones.
After he was let go from their room, he disclosed the details of the attack to his parents who rushed to Coimbatore and complained about the incident to the college administration. They also lodged a complaint against the seven accused students at the E2 Peelamedu police station. On the night of Tuesday, November 7, the police arrested the accused based on the complaint.
The accused students were booked under Sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 324 (voluntarily hurt by the use of a dangerous weapon or means),342 (punishment for wrongful confinement), 143 ( unlawful assembly), 355 (assaults or uses criminal force to any person), and 506(i) (punishment for criminal intimidation ) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 4 of the Tamilnadu Ragging Prohibition Act 1997, which stipulates two years imprisonment and fine up to Rs 10,000.