A grab from a video that surfaced on August 20Three days after denying allegations that a group of students was ragged — paraded with their heads tonsured — the authorities of Uttar Pradesh University of Medical Sciences at Saifai in Etawah on Friday suspended seven students of the 2018-batch for three months and also imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 on each of them.
The university has decided to lodge an police complaint against the seven students. The Dean of Students’ Welfare, Kalbe Jawad, has been removed and the university’s monitoring cell and anti-ragging squad dissolved.
The matter had come to light on Tuesday (August 20) when a video showed a group of fresher students walking in a single file with bowed, tonsured heads. An investigation by the Etawah district administration had confirmed ragging while but the university had denied it.
“The victims are the first-year MBSS students of batch 2019. They had initially denied ragging during a preliminary inquiry by the university… Later, university’s vice-chancellor Professor Raj Kumar ordered a detailed inquiry by an 11-member Anti-ragging Committee of the university, which included officials of police and district administration along with students,” informed university’s registrar Suresh Chandra.
“The committee submitted its report yesterday (Friday) stating that nine students have admitted to have been ragged. They also shared the names of the students involved in the ragging. On the basis of the inquiry report, the university suspended seven students of the 2018-batch,” said Chandra, adding that the victims did not tell the university the time of the incident. It is suspected that the students were walking in a single file to their classes from the hostel. The first-year students are staying at Shakyamuni hostel.
The university has also imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 on each of the 150 students of the 2018-batch for concealing the incident, said Anil Kumar Pandey, public relation officer of the university.
He added that the wardens of Shakyamuni hostel – Dr Ganesh Kumar and Dr Gayasuddin Haider – have also been sacked. The services of four security guards deployed at the hostel have been terminated, said Pandey.
The university has formed a four-member fact-finding committee led by Registrar Suresh Chandra to check lapses which led to ragging. The committee has to file a report to the V-C within three working days, said Chandra.
Meanwhile, the university has also sent a letter to Saifai police station in Etawah to lodge an FIR against the seven students on charges of ragging. Station House Officer of Saifai Police Station, Chandra Dev Yadav, said the FIR has not been filed because of some formalities.
University PRO Panndey said, “I have to check with police why an FIR has not been registered.”
Etawah District Magistrate Jitendra Bahadur Singh said a three-member committee led by the chief development officer has been formed to collect details about the incident, on the direction of the state government. The other two members are the additional superintendent of police (Rural) and the district inspector of schools. The panel has been asked to fix the responsibility.
Pandey said the Medical Council of India (MCI) had issued a show-cause notice on Wednesday. The MCI sought a reply from the university within 24 hours failing which a fine of Rs 1.5 crore would be imposed. “Based on the preliminary enquiry, the report was sent to MCI within 24 hours. Now, we will send another report prepared by the Anti-ragging Committee to MCI. We will also send a copy of the report,” said Pandey.
