Kerala ragging: Victim asked to sing and dance, not to drink phenyl, say police
Kalaburigi: Investigations into the alleged ragging of a first year dalit girl at a nursing college in Karnataka's Kalaburigi has revealed that the accused senior students had on previous instances forced the 19-year-old to sing and dance but did not push her to drink phenyl.
According to reports, the information was revealed after the police questioned many students of Al Qamal College of Nursing, including five accused of the crime.
Three of the five accused students identified as Lakshmi, Athera and Vishnupriya were arrested on Friday for ragging 19-year-old K P Aswathi and have been sent to judicial custody.
Read: Kerala student ragging: 3 seniors arrested on attempt to murder charges
Aswathi is now being treated at a hospital in her home state for severe damage to her internal organs after she was allegedly force-fed toilet cleaner by her seniors at the hostel of the Nursing college on May 9. She is now battling for life at Kozhikode Medical College hospital, where she was admitted on June 2.
Based on her statement, police in Kozhikode had registered an FIR on June 22 against five of her seniors.
National Human Rights Commission took cognizance of media reports of the incident and asked the state government and Kozhikode district authorities to file a report on it and action taken.
It issued notices to the Chief Secretary and Director General of Police, Karnataka, as well as the District Collector and Superintendent of Police of Kozhikode, calling for reports on action taken in the matter within four weeks.
It observed that ragging has been banned in educational institutions and guidelines on recommendations of the Raghavan Committee to curb ragging have been issued in this regard.
NHRC said the Apex Court has also referred to ragging as an ugly scar, which needs to be obliterated from educational institutions. The college authorities were legally bound and responsible to ensure protection of students from the menace of ragging, the Commission stated.
A Karnataka police team probing the incident is now in Kozhikode and will visit her on Saturday to record her statement.
Kerala Women's Commission also wrote to its counterpart in Karnataka, urging it to intervene in the matter.
