Kalaburagi: Three Kerala students of the Al Qamar Nursing College, who were taken into custody by the police on Friday in connection with the alleged ragging of the first year nursing student K.P. Ashwathi, have been remanded in 14-day judicial custody.
According to well placed sources, the special investigating team (SIT), led by the Deputy Superintendent of Police Jhanhavi, on Friday took the three girls from the college - Lakshmi, Athira and Krishna Priya - into custody for interrogation. These girls, who had been to Kerala after the incident, had returned to the college on Friday to attend classes.
They were produced before a Magistrate in the district court late night, who remanded her in judicial custody for 14 days. The police intend to take one more student into custody for interrogation.
It may be mentioned Ashwathi was allegedly ragged by senior students, also from Kerala, on May 5 by forcing her to drink a toilet cleaner. The incident came to light on May 9, when the girl developed health complications and was rushed to a private hospital here for treatment.
Meanwhile the SIT has stepped up the investigation by visiting the Al Qamar Nursing College hostel and the private hospital, where the girl was provided treatment after she developed health complications, and spoke to the authorities concerned to record their statements.
The team is also learnt to have spoken to the friends and classmates of Ashwathi and the friends of the accused students. It is not immediately known what these students had revealed. Preliminary investigations reveal that there had been a lapse on the part of the college administration, which kept the police in the dark about the incident.
In the meantime the Superintendent of Police N. Shashikumar has informed that the Kalaburagi police have added a few more charges to the original FIR registered by the Kozhikode police, after it was transferred here on Thursday.
The additional charges added are Section 116 of the Karnataka Education Act 1983 to replace the provisions of the Anti-Ragging Act of Kerala, Section 336 of the IPC against the College Authorities and Section 176 of the IPC for failure to inform the police about the incident.
