Lewd 'ragging' caught on cell

The otherwise pesky camera phone has finally come in handy - in nabbing the culprits in two campus ?ragging? incidents that crossed all the lines.

The otherwise pesky camera phone has finally come in handy - in nabbing the culprits in two campus “ragging” incidents that crossed all the lines.

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The Andhra police cracked two cases of sexual abuse under the guise of ragging in engineering and medical colleges in the state. Five engineering students of GMR Institute of Technology at Rajam in Srikakulam district were arrested on Wednesday after they were caught on a camera phone sodomising two second year male students.

The incriminating images were handed over to the police by a junior student, who walked into the Rajam police station with the ‘evidence’ and alleged that six senior students had sexually assaulted the two second year students of the mechanical engineering department on the pretext of ragging. He showed them video clips - filmed on his cellphone - of the seniors indulging in oral and anal sex with the juniors.

Acting on this information and the video clippings, a police team led by Palakonda deputy superintendent of police PV Krishnaiah raided the GMR complex. The six students were identified and five of them were arrested under the provisions of the AP Prevention of Ragging Act, 1997 and for indulging in unnatural acts (sodomy) under section 377 of the IPC.

It was the same story at the Kurnool Medical College last week when three third year MBBS students - who had compelled their juniors to strip naked - were arrested on the basis of pictures recorded in a cellphone by rival senior students. The college suspended the three students.