8 students at Andhra Uni suspended for ragging, college calls it small argument

Eight students at Andhra University College of Engineering in Visakhapatnam were allegedly suspended following an incident of ragging which came to light on Monday. Senior students in the men’s hostel of the college reportedly forced fresher students to “parade half-naked,” and perform obscene dramas in the hostel. The incident took place last Wednesday and Thursday, but only came to light on Monday after the elder brother of one of the first-year students, who is a final year student at the same college, reported the incident to college authorities.

“Ragging still takes place on this campus, they just call it by different names now. Often times these senior students label it as ‘interacting’ with juniors, but it is nothing more than ragging,” alleged Kumar*, one of the students at the university.

Another student informed TNM that the senior students have been suspended from the college following the incident, “We went to the hostel after we heard about the incident and came to know that a few of the guys involved were suspended and had vacated the hostel. Ragging is very much prevalent on this campus, even if people don’t always outright acknowledge it.”

Despite several students stating that ragging is very much prevalent on the campus, when TNM reached out to the administrators at Andhra University, the Chief Warden Abulu denied any such ‘incident’ taking place. He also said that it was merely a small argument between a few students, which had been sorted out, emphasizing repeatedly, “There was no ragging on our campus.”