Plus 3 student of Basic Science College in Bhubaneswar accuses seniors of ragging

Even as the controversy surrounding the suicide of BJB College girl student Ruchika Mohanty due to alleged ragging is yet to die down, another case of ragging has surfaced in an educational institution in the State capital on Wednesday. 

A Plus 3 second year student of the College of Basic Science and Humanities lodged a complaint with Khandagiri police alleging that three of his seniors ragged him after he declined to pay them money for consuming alcohol.  He alleged that the seniors also assaulted him and forced him to do sit-ups.

It is learnt that the accused students and victim belonged to separate departments. 

Acting on the complaint, police have started an investigation into the matter.

As per the norms, if any ragging case surfaces, the college authorities should take the matter to the anti-ragging cell before informing the police. However, in this case, the college authorities seem to be unaware of the incident for which the victim filed a police complaint.

Meanwhile, the College authorities dismissed allegations of ragging brought by the students. 

"The anti-ragging cell did not receive any such complaint. We called the complainant and inquired about it. The alleged incident did not happen on the campus," said the director of the College.

It may be mentioned here that BJB College girl student Ruchika Mohanty, who ended her life by hanging recently, left a suicide note in which she accused three seniors of ragging. However, the police, probing the case, are yet to identify the accused students.

CSK Mishra, director of College of Basic Science & Humanities, said “The student who brought ragging allegations had an argument with some students outside the campus. We were in the campus till 6pm yesterday. Besides, we have a disciplinary committee and anti-ragging squads inside hostels. No such incident took place inside the campus.  We had not received any complaints from the student in this regard. Had we received any complaint, we could have taken action. Ragging allegation is baseless as nothing happened inside campus.”

Rajat Roy, Assistant Commissioner of Police of Zone 3, Bhubaneswar said, “According to complainant Somnath Sethi, he had gone to meet his friend when he had an argument with two post graduate students of agriculture department and a passout student. It’s not a ragging case at all.”

“There is no mention of ragging in the complaint. Somnath claimed that he was assaulted because he declined to give money for consumption of liquor. We are investigating and will take necessary action against the accused,” added ACP.