KOTTAYAM: Police arrested five third-year students of Govt College of Nursing here on a complaint of brutal ragging from junior students. The incident reportedly involved severe physical abuse, such as tying dumbbells to their private parts.
The arrested students are Samuel Johnson, 20, of Valakom, Kottayam; Rahul Raj, 22, of Malappuram; Jeeva, 18, of Wayanad; Rijil Jith, 20, of Malappuram; and Vivek NV, 21, of Koruthode, Kottayam. They were remanded in judicial custody in the evening and sent to the district jail.
They were booked under BNS sections 118(1) for voluntarily causing hurt using dangerous weapons or harmful means, 308(2) for extortion, 351(1) for criminal intimidation, and Sections 3 and 4 of the Kerala Prohibition of Ragging Act, 1998.
According to police, six first-year students were subjected to cruel ragging, which included stripping them naked and hanging dumbbells on their private parts.
Accused threatened and extorted money from victims
The accused allegedly used a geometry divider to inflict wounds on the victims’ bodies after tying them to cots in their hostel rooms and poured lotion on these wounds.
The complaint said the accused also used to rub cream on their mouths and other body parts. They reportedly threatened the victims with a knife and extorted money from them. The senior students used to collect money from juniors for drinking on Sundays, it said.
Some of these cruel acts were also recorded on mobile phones, and police have seized these visuals from the accused. The arrests were made by a team led by Gandhinagar station house officer T Sreejith.
“The victim students approached the anti-ragging committee at the college. The committee probed the complaint, and after finding it to be true, they informed us. We took statements from some of the victims, and based on that, the case was registered,” said sub-inspector Pradeep Lal V, the investigating officer.
According to the FIR, the ordeal of the first-year students began in Nov last year. Lini Joseph, principal-in-charge, said the college authorities were informed about the incidents only now.
“The accused students were suspended from the college after a probe by senior professors of the college... A report on the incident has been submitted to Kerala University of Health Sciences and district police chief,” she said.