BHOPAL: Senior students at the Institute of Engineering Technology (IET), Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya (DAVV) campus in Indore, conspired to trigger Nepal-like Gen Z protests on campus to avenge the punishment imposed on them for ragging a junior student last month.
A detailed probe by the anti-ragging committee of the state-run institution has revealed that a group of senior students, punished for their involvement in ragging, orchestrated the entire plan and sought to enforce it through first-year students.
According to the committee’s findings, the juniors were recently called to a restaurant near the institute, where the seniors instructed them to create fake email and social media (X) accounts and use these accounts to retweet messages posted by the seniors, thereby preparing the ground for the protests. The juniors were threatened with ‘Batch Out’ if they failed to comply.
The committee further reported that several second-, third-, and fourth-year students of the institute, around 30 to 40 in total, were present during the meeting with the juniors at the restaurant.
As part of the destructive plot, the juniors were directed to damage CCTV cameras and remove the digital video recorder (DVR) from the hostel.
A third-year student, Aman Patel—who was previously associated with the RSS-linked ABVP but later ousted by the student outfit for unruly acts—has emerged as the prime conspirator of the entire plot.
His younger brother, Anuj Patel, a first-year student staying in the hostel without authorisation, monitored the juniors to ensure compliance with the directives of Aman and other senior students.
Following the investigation, the committee has recommended that the police lodge an FIR under the appropriate BNS sections against four students, including the two brothers, Aman and Anuj Patel, as well as Aman’s batchmates Adarsh Makwana and Aditya Sharma.
The police will also be asked to help identify the other senior students present at the restaurant meeting, and similar action is likely to be initiated against them.
The committee has also named several first-year students involved in damaging windows, CCTV cameras, and stealing the DVR from the hostel.
According to DAVV vice-chancellor Dr Rakesh Singhai, “Some senior students, after being found guilty of ragging a junior student last month, were awarded multiple punishments, including monetary fine, expulsion from the hostel, and debarment for one semester.
Possibly miffed with that action, the same senior students called the juniors at a restaurant recently and rendered them necessary instructions. Subsequently, destruction of CCTV cameras and removal of the DVR happened at the hostel; it remains to be established who all students were involved in it.”
“Further detailed probe is needed about the alleged planning by the students for protests. A meeting of the Proctorial Committee will be held later today in the matter, while a detailed complaint is also being sent to the local police, particularly for lodging a case about the damage to CCTV cameras and removal of DVR,” Singhai added.