THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Kazhakootam police have booked seven students of Government College, Kariavattom, who are allegedly affiliated with the SFI, for ragging a junior student and torturing him in the SFI unit room.
The sections pertaining to ragging were added against Alan, Velu, Salman, Sravan, Anandan, Parthan and Prince, who were earlier booked under other charges for attacking first-year students on January 11. After the ragging charges were levelled against the seniors, the college authorities on Tuesday suspended them.
The police said senior students attacked juniors on January 11. Abhishek , a first-year student, was also injured in the attack and he chose to file a complaint with the police following which seven seniors, all third-year students, were booked. In order to avenge this, the seniors came searching for Abhishek. However, Abhishek managed to evade them and in a fit of rage the assailants preyed on Abhishek’s friend Binz, a first-year biotechnology student.
As per the complaint filed by Binz with the police, he was slapped and beaten by the gang when they saw him on the campus. He was then taken to the unit room where the seniors assaulted him brutally. According to Binz’s father Jose, his son was going for badminton practice when the gang forcefully took him away.
“He was taken to the unit room and was made to kneel down. They slapped him first and then threatened to beat him with a cricket stump if he got up from the ground.
They attacked him with sticks and tore up his T-shirt. They then told him to go out of the room half-naked. When he pleaded for drinking water, one of the seniors passed on a water bottle. But before Binz could take it, Velu got hold of the bottle. He spat in the water and then forced Binz to drink it,” he said.
Binz was later taken to Nedumangad Taluk Hospital as he hailed from Vencod, which is close to Nedumangad. After ascertaining the reasons for the injury, the doctor alerted the police following which the police recorded the statement of Binz.
Meanwhile, the anti-ragging cell of the college conducted an inquiry and concluded that Binz was subjected to ragging. They came to this conclusion after perusing the CCTV visuals as well as statements of the students. The college principal alerted the police that ragging indeed took place following which additional charges were levelled against the senior students.