Tripura Medical College files police complaint against 18 students, imposes Rs 10 lakh fine for ragging

NEW DELHI: Tripura Medical College lodged a police complaint against 18 senior Bachelor of Medicine, and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) students for ragging junior students. According to the Society Against Violence in Education (SAVE), an anti-ragging NGO, the seniors forced the juniors to shave their heads and forced female students to propose to them and sing songs.

The college conducted an internal inquiry and found the accused guilty of repeatedly abusing, threatening, and humiliating the newly admitted 2024 MBBS students, particularly the Scheduled Tribe (ST) students. As per the institute, the senior students forced their juniors to engage in degrading activities through WhatsApp messages.

“Many girls have had to forcefully propose to male seniors and sing for them. Some boys had to shave their head completely and send pictures bald,” one of the WhatsApp screenshots shared by the junior students read.

In response to the offences, the college imposed a collective fine of Rs 10 lakh on the accused students, suspended them from hostels for a year, and mandated mobile phone monitoring for six months.

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After receiving complaints from the victims, the NGO lodged complaints with the college and the UGC Anti-Ragging helpline. The victims were even shown sample pictures of the intended head-shaving style, highlighting the extent of the planned humiliation.

“It is worth mentioning that the mass head shaving has become a kind of ritual in ragging in medical colleges across India, with reports and pictures of hordes of heads shaven students appearing in the media every year,” the official press release read.

Human rights violations highlighted

The anti-ragging activist, Rupesh Kumar Jha, who led the operation from the NGO’s side, stated, “This should serve as an example for the entire country. Mass human rights violations cannot be allowed in our educational institutions to go unpunished.”

Another activist, Supreme Court Advocate Meera Kaura Patel, opined, “This is one of the biggest cases in which any college has given punishment to the culprits. In many such earlier cases, the college administrations in the past have tried to cover up the acts of ragging prevalent.”

Action taken by college

In an official statement, college principal Arindam Datta acknowledged that a large volume of WhatsApp chats between the perpetrators and the victims were shared by the NGO, revealing the "highly derogatory, humiliating, intimidating and despicable words and jibe sufficient to inflict mental and psychological injury to the victim students which amounts to an offence of ragging." Two of the accused students have even allegedly threatened the complainant, the principal noted.

Taking a note of the incident, the medical college stated, "On receipt of the complaint of ragging from the SAVE and the Anti-Ragging Cell of National Medical Commission the Principal, TMC constituted a committee to enquire into the complaints of ragging and during such an enquiry the complaints have been found prima-facie true. Therefore, in pursuance of the regulations of the National Medical Commission punitive measures were taken against the erring MBBS students. In the regulations of the NMC there is specific direction of lodging FIR with the local police."

A list of the 18 accused medical students involved in the ragging of juniors is given below.

Tripura Medical College's students accused of ragging. (Screengrab of official statement)

Taking action against the senior medical students accused of ragging, the college slapped a fine of Rs 50,000 on each student with additional penalties of Rs 10,000 on five students for repeatedly harassing the freshers and Rs 25,000 on two for 'abusing' the RTI and victim support division member. The accused students will not be allowed to participate in any extra-curricular programme of the college and are prohibited to enter the hostel premises till the expulsion period. Neither they should communicate the juniors over mobile or any other means nor they are permitted to represent the institution in any manner.