Engineering student hospitalised after ragging in hostel

Calcutta News.Net
Thursday 9th September, 2010

A Gujarat youth studying at a private engineering college here has been hospitalised for depression after he was harassed and not allowed to sleep for two nights by seniors at a hostel, says his father who has complained to police of ragging.

A case has been registered against three students of the college, police said Thursday.

Rahul Sharma, who is from Vadodra, has taken admission to the R.N. Modi Engineering College only six days back. The complaint was made Wednesday.

'After taking admission in the college, we got him a room at Modi Hostel in Jawahar Nagar area of the city. It was in the hostel that he was mentally harassed and tortured and not allowed to sleep for at least two nights,' Rajkumar Sharma, Rahul's father, said in the police complaint.

Sharma said as soon as he came to know about it, he rushed to Kota and complained about it to the college authorities. 'After not getting a proper reply, we requested that he be allowed to leave the hostel.'

On Wednesday, Rahul started to cry and suddenly collapsed, his father alleged. He was admitted in a government hospital here. 'He is not in a condition to talk to anyone,' Sharma said.

The hostel authorities said the father and son had come to them and were asked to file a complaint with the director. 'However, they did not do so,' a college official said.

Police have started investigating the matter. 'We have got the ragging complaint and have started to search for the accused students,' said a police official.

In April, the Rajasthan High Court while hearing a ragging case had asked the state government to deal with incidents of ragging with a firm hand. The court had also directed the government to enact an anti-ragging law in the state. It had observed that ragging is a serious issue and could not be dealt with only through anti-ragging orders passed by universities and colleges.

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