Hyderabad: The police has stepped up night vigil at the Osmania Dental Medical College hostel after an incident of four second year students ragging eight first year students from midnight to 2 am on December 9 came to light. The seniors told the police that they were not being “respected by their juniors”.
Three of the eight juniors were ragged quite badly. They were shouted at, rebuked and made to sit without their shirts for two hours in the night. Their shirts was removed and soaked in a bucket of water so that they could not wear them. The remaining five were made to stand in line and asked to bow in respect. All of them were asked to bow whenever they passed the seniors in the college and hostel premises.
The frightened students did not complain but the other students in the hostel saw what happened. The news spread among first year students of Dental College and the MBBS section of Osmania Medical College, in the adjacent building.
Ragging case registered on December 12
A police case was registered on December 12 about the ragging of eight first year students of Osmania Dental Medical College. According to a junior doctor of the MBBS hostel,
“Most students at the Dental College are outstation students. There were problems amongst some of them as they were not willing to listen to their seniors. These small acts culminated into the incident of ragging.”
Sultan Bazaar police inspector P. Shiva Shankar Rao said, “One of the students narrated the incident to the principal of the Dental Medical College and he immediately alerted the police. There was a lot of contemplation on the part of the senior police officers and the principal and senior doctors of the college on whether or not to file an FIR. But it was thought that such an act must be nipped in the bud. Hence an FIR against the four students was registered.
They were arrested and counselled. Then they were released on bail.”
Since then the dental college has conducted three sessions of counseling and has also asked the hostel authorities to constitute administration committees of three people each who will take rounds at night. A senior doctor said, “This is the first time in the history of the Dental College that an incident of ragging has been registered. It has shaken most of us as we have never faced this situation before.”
Dr Bal Reddy, principal of the college, has summoned the parents of the four seniors to decide on a course of action.
