Ragging charges slapped on 34 SVNIT students

The Institute-level Anti Ragging Committee started investigations and questioned 40 senior students and made a report.

The committee members also recovered photographs of the junior students being ragged,which were later produced as evidence.

In accordance with the UGC regulations to punish students involved in ragging activities,the institute authorities categorised the ragging offences under three groups.

The first category,A Major,involved acts related to planning,encouraging and participation in the activity); B—Supporting Involvement,for making fun out of the activity,helping to carry out the activity); and C — Bystanders (witnessing the activity,showing indifference to the unlawful happenings and not informing the institute authority about the incident).

SVNIT Registrar H A Parmar said: “All the students gathered at the garden under the banner of Andhra Pradesh Students Association at Sarojini Naidu garden in Umra. The seniors had pre-planned the programme. The first-year students were called under the pretext of a get-together for discussion on the improvement of academic performance and support to financially weak students,and then ragged.”

Thirty four students have been identified for their alleged involvement in ragging,out of which six are in A category,10 in B category and 18 in C category.

The punishment vary from withdrawal of scholarships and other benefits,debarring from representing the institution in regional,national or international meet,debarring from training and placement,campus recruitment,and expulsion from the hostel. Besides,A category students are rusticated from the institute for two semesters,while B and C category students will be debarred from the first internal test of current semesters.

The institute authorities will also check the behaviour of the students regularly.

H A Parmar further said: “We have decided to take strict legal action against the senior students involved in such acts. We will meet the police commissioner in the coming days and file a complaint against them.”

The ‘offences’

* Making funny postures for taking photographs

* To sing songs and dance in groups (snake dance)

* To perform skits

* To eat grass

* Senior students tightly pressing cheeks of juniors

* Getting hands twisted by senior students

* To bend down and jump over one another

* To carry out cross hand sit-ups

* To do frog jumping

* To act like a salesman

* To act like a TV anchor

* Restraining to follow hobbies of one’s choice or interest

* To find a word after tearing paper into pieces

* To measure the length of park by foot

* To wear only formal dresses without any beard or long hair

* To address seniors as ‘sir’