The police in Telangana's Warangal town have booked seven students of Kakatiya Medical College (KMC) for allegedly ragging a first-year MBBS student. The police have registered a case against the third-year MBBS students after the junior student lodged a complaint alleging physical assault and harassment. The victim, who is from Jalore in Rajasthan, alleged that the seniors ragged him and when he resisted they assaulted him.
The police booked the accused students under IPC sections 294(b) (pertaining to obscene language in public places), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 34 (acts carried out collectively with common intention) and Section 4 (iii) of the Telangana Prohibition of Ragging Act, 1997.
According to the victim, the incident occurred late in the night on September 14 when he was returning to his room from the library. He stated in his complaint that the seniors who were intoxicated and verbally abusive wanted him to join but refused. When he returned to his room, the senior brutally assaulted him. His batchmates rushed him to MGM Hospital.
This is the second incident of ragging at a government-run medical college in Telangana this month. Ten students of Gandhi Medical College in Hyderabad were suspended on September 10 for ragging their juniors. However, KMC Principal D Mohan Das denied that there was any ragging. He said that there was a clash between students and the junior student was beaten up by seniors.
However, the anti-ragging committee took note of the incident. The anti-ragging committee and disciplinary committee will meet on September 19 to probe the incident. The Principal said based on the findings, the committees will take action.
In February this year, KMC was rocked by the suicide of a MD student due to alleged harassment by her senior. Preethi, a first year student of the post graduate (MD) in the department of Anaesthesia, took a lethal injection while on duty at MGM Hospital Warangal on February 22.
She later succumbed at Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) in Hyderabad. Police arrested her senior M.A. Saif, a second year student in the department of Anaesthesia, for abetment to suicide. He was also booked under Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atroc ities) Act and Anti-Ragging Act.