Ragging row: 15 NIT students booked

Eluru: Police registered cases against 15 Andhra Pradesh students for ragging a junior student from Bihar at National Institute of Technology (NIT)-AP (Tadepalligudem) at Peda Tadepalli village in West Godavari district on Saturday.

Highlights:

• Senior students of NIT were involved in ragging of first year student from Bihar
• The incident reportedly happened on Friday evening on the campus

According to information, the NIT-AP students of 2nd and 3rd years indulged in ragging of a junior student from Bihar on Friday evening on the premises. Five students from AP - Guna Sai Prakash (3rd year), Sushanth Joel (2nd year) Saketh, Prithviraj and Srinivas – involved in the ragging of the first-year student of Bihar Mukul Kumar, who joined NIT-AP (Tadepalligudem) on Friday evening.

Mukul Kumar objected their behaviour towards him. A verbal dual has taken place between them which led to the clash. The senior students beat up Mukul Kumar. It is learnt that they also attacked the security guard of NIT who tried to stop the seniors. Tension prevailed on the campus following the incident.

Police arrived at the campus and made inquiries with the students. The first year students in the NIT from all branches gathered on the campus at night and raised slogans against the ragging and demanded action against the accused.

The students complained that senior students are ragging the juniors for the past few months and the juniors are victimised and humiliated by their inhuman behaviour. They demanded immediate arrest of the accused.

The police stayed in the campus till late night following the tense situation. The victim Mukul Kumar, who is staying in the NIT campus hostel complained to the Tadepalligudem Rural Police station against the ragging by seniors. Around 3.00 a.m. the Police have filed cases against 15 students under Anti-Ragging Act.

Meanwhile, the first year students from all the branches of B.Tech staged a protest on Saturday morning also and demanded the police to arrest the culprits who had indulged in the ragging.

Following the protest by the students, the Mandal Tahsildar Nagamani, NIT Coordinator Prof S Srinivasa Rao, Kovvuru DSP S Venkateswara Rao reached the campus and discussed with the students. The officials assured them of necessary action against the culprits. With this, the students have withdrawn the agitation.

In the meantime, the NIT-AP Coordinator S Srinivasa Rao on Saturday issued orders suspending the main culprits T Guna Sai Prakash (3rd year CSE), Sushanth Joel (2nd year MED), CH Saketh (2nd year B.Tech MED) B Prithviraj (2nd Year B.Tech, CED) and B Srinivas (1st Year B.Tech EEE) from the NIT-AP for one month with immediate effect. The Coordinator of NIT has directed the Institute’s Anti-Ragging Committee to submit a detailed report within 24 hours.

Tadepalligudem Rural CI N Rajasekhar said that on information, police went to the NIT campus to control the agitating students in the night.

However, the students just staged a protest in the campus. The victim Mukul Kumar lodged a complaint with the rural police station in the night, he added. The CI said that cases were booked against 15 students including the 5 main accused. As a precautionary measure, the police have taken some students into their custody. FIR was filed against five main accused.