'Burned with candles, eyebrows shaved’: Senior MBBS student accused of ragging, torturing juniors at UP medical college

LUCKNOW: A serious case of alleged ragging and physical as well as mental harassment surfaced at Madhav Prasad Tripathi Medical College, where a senior MBBS student was accused of subjecting juniors to ‘inhuman and unlawful acts', prompting the hostel administration to lodge an FIR.

According to the FIR registered on Saturday night by warden of the boys' hostel Dr Ashish Sharma, the incident involved Shaurya Gupta, a student of the MBBS 2023 batch. The FIR was filed by Sharma after receiving a written representation from students of the 2025 batch. The complaint alleged that the accused student engaged in multiple acts of ragging and brutality against juniors.



These included physically forcing students into stress positions for prolonged periods, allegedly making them squat (murga punishment) until exhaustion and continuing the punishment even after they collapsed.

In a particularly disturbing set of allegations, some students, including Kapil Sharma, Mohammad Anas and Sohail Ansari, were reportedly burned with candles, while others, such as Aditya Sonkar and Pankaj Yadav, were allegedly subjected to burns using a lighter. Additionally, the complaint stated that the eyebrows of Aditya Sonkar and Yuvraj Tripathi were forcibly shaved.

The complaint further highlighted psychological harassment, alleging that the accused accessed and read private messages sent by students to their family members, causing severe mental distress. Junior students reportedly refrained from resisting due to fear and the hierarchical senior-junior dynamic within the hostel.

It was also alleged that the accused threatened the victims with expulsion from the college if they reported the incidents to faculty members or administrative authorities.

Calling the acts "highly condemnable, inhuman, and against institutional discipline," the hostel administration urged police to conduct a probe, following which an FIR was registered under 115(2) (voluntarily causing hurt) and 118(1) (causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons or means) of the BNS. Additionally, 352 (intentional insult with intent to provoke a breach) and 351(2) (criminal intimidation), also of the BNS, were registered against Shaurya Gupta, the police said.