Engineering student turns nervous wreck after ragging

SILIGURI - A first year engineering student of a private technological institute here in Darjeeling district turned into a nervous wreck after being ragged for several days by two seniors in a students’ mess, his family said.

The father of the victim Riju Ghosh, who hails from Bankura district, has filed a police complaint in the Pradhan Nagar police station of this sub-division against two senior students, who had been allegedly ragging him at the private mess since Aug 9.

“Two senior students, one of whom is from our institute of the Siliguri Institute of Technology (SIT), and the other from a neighbouring institute used to rag me daily.

“They used to beat me up, strip me of my clothes and parade me naked, besides indulging in other forms of torture. Those two boys now have become horror to me. They wouldn’t allow me to study even,” said Riju, who is now under medication and bedridden in his house in Bankura district.

Riju’s father Subir Ghosh demanded that the two students be rusticated from their respective institutes and stern police action be taken against them.

“I want these students to be rusticated from their institutes. I had a tough time arranging funds for my son’s admission and now I had to take away him away from that institute. I don’t know what my son will do now,” he said.

“The inspector in charge of Pradhan Nagar police station has received the complaint. Investigation is on,” said Gaurab Sharma, additional superintendent of police, Siliguri.

The names of the two accused have not been disclosed during investigation.

Meanwhile, SIT principal Goutam Das said an anti-ragging committee was being formed in the institute. “They will probe the matter. If the charges are found to be true, then the accused who is a second year student of our institute, could be suspended or even rusticated.”