A 21-year-old architecture student from Kerala died of severe head injuries he suffered after being allegedly ragged in a Bangalore college.
In another ragging incident, Police lodged an FIR against eight MBBS students for allegedly bullying 18 juniors at a medical college hostel in Patan district in Gujarat.
Ahab Ibrahim, a second year diploma student of Acharya College of Technology Polytechnic in Bangalore, passed away at a hospital in Kochi late on Monday night, his relatives said. He hails from Thrissur district.
According to his relatives, the boy was allegedly ragged by six of his seniors, some of whom were also Keralites. He was found unconscious in the bathroom of the hostel and was taken to a hospital in Bangalore on January 27.
Ahab, who was later shifted to Kerala, was in a state of coma ever since he was ragged, they said.
The relatives alleged that Karnataka police had refused to register a case and said the boy's life could have been saved if he had been provided better medical facilities by the college authorities.
The six seniors, who indulged in ragging, are said to be absconding, they said.
A case for 'unnatural death' was registered by police in Cochi yesterday on the basis of a complaint given by Ahab's relatives.
In the Patan incident, the eight students against whom the FIR was lodged have been suspended by their college following the incident and asked to vacate their hostel rooms.
The second year MBBS students of Gujarat Medical Education and Research Society (GMRS) medical college in Dharpur village of Patan allegedly made video clip of freshers after forcing them to strip and do exercises in front of them, according to the complaint.
The ragging took place in the hostel premises of the medical college on March 4, police said.
"We learnt that senior students targeted 18 students of first year MBBS on that day. The seniors forced them to strip and do various exercises in front of them. When the junior students tried to run away, the seniors locked them in room no. 208 of the hostel," said inspector R G Parmar of Balisana police station.
"It is alleged that the seniors locked the junior students in a room, thrashed them, threatened them with dire consequences and made obscene video clip after stripping them," he said.
When the issue reached to anti-ragging committee, all the eight senior students were asked by the college authority to vacate their hostel rooms on March 6 as punishment.
"Taking immediate action, we have also suspended them from the college till we complete our internal investigation. Based on our findings, the hostel warden today lodged an FIR against the eight students for their act," said Dr Gurudas Khilnani, dean of GMERS medical college and chairman of anti-ragging committee.
Police have booked the eight students under IPC sections 143 (unlawful assembly), 452 (illegal trespassing and confinement), 504 (intentional insult), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 323 (causing hurt), and section 66 of the IT Act for making obscene video clip.
