Ragging case: Saifai medical varsity suspends 7 students

KANPUR: After remaining in denial for four days and defending an alleged incident of ragging as a “sanskar” and “manners-building” exercise, the Uttar Pradesh University of Medical Sciences, Saifai, made a U-turn on Friday and suspended seven students of the 2018 MBBS batch for three months.
While a penalty of Rs 25,000 has been slapped on each of the seven, the university will also levy a fine of Rs 5,000 each from all the 150 students of the 2018 batch.
In parallel measures, the varsity has removed dean of students welfare Kalbe Jawwad, suspended hostel wardens Ganesh Kumar and Gyasuddin Haider and sacked security personnel who were on duty during the incident on Tuesday. The existing anti-ragging committee and the anti-ragging flying squad have been dissolved as well.
On Thursday, the Medical Council of India (MCI) had issued a showcause notice to the vice-chancellor of the varsity in Etawah after video clips of 150 first-year students being forced to shave their heads went viral on social media. The tonsured students were also paraded and made to salute their seniors.
The Council had warned the medical university of a Rs 1.5-crore penalty if it failed to respond within 24 hours. Vice-chancellor Raj Kumar, who had initially tried to play down the incident as an exercise to inculcate sanskar (ritual), replied to the notice the same day.
Action against the senior students was taken on the basis of a report submitted by a 12-member anti-ragging committee of the university, which further recommended forming of a new anti-ragging panel and flying squad.
“We have suspended seven students of the 2018 MBBS batch for three months. A fine of Rs 25,000 has been slapped on each of them. We have also removed the dean of students welfare and suspended two wardens. Security personnel who were on duty on the day of the incident have been sacked. We have decided to lodge an FIR against the seven students,” said PK Jain, the university dean.
Jain maintained that actions against the varsity employees were taken because their response to the incident was “callous and wanting”.