SPA gives new side to ragging story

NEW DELHI: This is the real "ragging" that took place at the School of Planning and Architecture (SPA) a few days ago.
Unlike reported in a city newspaper, one student was told to "imagine that the dog was his girlfriend and talk about sex with her" while two more were asked to act out a "sex scene" by three seniors of the Planning department.
This came out in the anti-ragging committee''s finding, informed a senior SPA faculty member.
The freshers quite rightly shrugged off the suggestion as ridiculous, and were abused verbally by the raggers.
One fresher then gave a written complaint to the SPA authorities who suspended the three seniors and fined them Rs 10,000 each.
"No one was forced to have sex with any animal or human here. This is an absurd and inconceivable thing," said a senior architecture student of SPA.
The Dean of Studies, T M Vinod Kumar, on Thursday denied having said that students had been forced to do what was reported. He said that he was asked "if an incident of ragging had taken place and if action had been taken."
Both were ''true'' and he confirmed it. However, it was nothing as "exaggerated" as was made out to be.
Meanwhile, the Students Council and SPA have strongly condemned the "misleading report." SPA director Subir Saha, however, refused to comment any further on the issue.
A meeting was called by the joint secretary (technical) at the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Ravi Mathur, on Thursday to discuss the "reported incident" with the SPA authorities.
Mathur, also sent a letter to the director of SPA asking for a "thorough investigation" and giving "exemplary punishment to students responsible for the same."
The letter further states: "The ministry would like you and the Dean to personally interview each and every student of the 1st year in camera and individually enquire about the facts of this case." The ministry has asked for a report by Tuesday.
A police team was also sent to SPA on Thursday morning to "investigate the incident."
Police sources confirmed to The Times of India that "nothing as had been reported" took place.
The police gave a clean chit to the institute after conducting an extensive inquiry.