Eleven students were arrested on Thursday for their alleged involvement in ragging in Kanachur Institute of Medical Sciences, a private college in Mangaluru. All the arrested were natives of Kerala and had allegedly ragged five freshers from their state by assaulting them, Mangaluru City Police Commissioner N Shashi Kumar told reporters. Shashi Kumar said that the accused had allegedly forced the first year students to shave their mustaches and have a hair cut. Other than that, they were also made to count the number of matchsticks in a matchbox and measure a room using matchsticks.
The students who were harassed approached the college management, which in turn filed a police complaint. "After interrogating 18 students in this connection, we have arrested 11 students," the Commissioner said, adding they had been booked under sections 323 (Punishment for voluntarily causing hurt), 506 (Punishment for criminal intimidation) and other relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the State Education Act.
Those who refused to obey the diktat by the accused were physically assaulted and locked in a room. Further they were also threatened not to report this ragging incident to the college management, police said.
The Hindu identified the accused as Mohammed Shamos (19), Asin Babu (19), both from Kozhikode, Akshay KS (19), Robin Biju (20), Alwyn Joey (19), Jerome Cyril (19), all from Kottayam, Abdul Ananas (21), Jayfin Roichanna (19), both from Kasaragod, Mohammed Suraj (19) from Pathanamthitta and Zubin Mehroof (21) and Abdul Basit (19), both from Malappuram.
Addressing reporters, the Police Commissioner warned students not to get involved in ragging and stated that it will damage their careers. He also urged students subjected to ragging to report the incidents to their college management, teachers or directly to the police.
According to reports, another incident had been recently reported in the district where nine senior students of a pharmacy college in the district were arrested for assaulting a first year student.
(PTI Inputs)