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Kerala tech student in hospital after hours of beating by seniors, 5 booked
The student said he was forced to hold a rod in one hand and a mobile phone in another for more than two hours while senior students repeatedly hit him.
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A first-year student of a technology institute in Kerala’s Idukki was hospitalized after sustaining severe injuries on being allegedly thrashed by his seniors during ragging on Tuesday.
Five students of the institute were booked on Friday.
Athul Mohan, who joined the DC School of Management and Technology on June 22, sustained injuries on his arms and legs.
Mohan said he was forced to hold a rod in one hand and a mobile phone in another for more than two hours while senior students repeatedly hit him. “The order was that neither of the two things should fall”, he said.
When his mobile phone fell they got angry and thrashed him again, he said in his complaint.
He said initially college authorities tried to hush up the matter and but suspended the five students and ordered an internal inquiry after he filed a police complaint.
Mohan added he was also threatened by some senior students with dire consequences if he proceeded with his complaint.
“Later I was told ragging is quite rampant in the college hostel. I enrolled at the institute to study, not to get ragged like this,” he said.
He said though he had joined the college in June he had told his seniors that he was suffering from fits (convulsion) to escape ragging. But later they came to know that he was lying and got back at him.
A senior police officer said all five accused were absconding and efforts were on to arrest them.
In July this year, a first year MBBS student allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself in his hostel room in Kurnool’s Government Medical College in Andhra Pradesh.
The body of Komma Harsha Praneeth Reddy (20), hailing from Aravindnagar in Kadapa town, was found hanging from his hostel room by his friends.
Reddy’s father had alleged ragging and assault by his seniors, but the college management had refuted the allegations.
