Students quizzed over girl’s ragging

Mumbai: Dadar police has questioned the fourth year students of a South Mumbai-based architecture college, asking them about an incident of alleged ragging. A fourth year female student had accused seven of her classmates of ragging earlier this month, and the police enquired the latter. Keeping in mind the students’ upcoming examinations, the police had planned to question other students after the completion of exams, but due to pressure from the victim’s family, the police questioned the other classmates.

The classmates told the police that they do not know anything about the ragging incident, but have said that a video was circulated on WhatsApp groups featuring the complainant. The accused students, however, said that the video was of a prank played in good humour, and it never intended to outrage the student’s modesty.

Police sources said the complainant student, who is 20 years old, was allegedly ragged by seven of her classmates in January this year. According to the student’s complaint, during their annual college festival held in January, the accused danced to a song while holding a picture of her and making vulgar gestures. A video of this was then allegedly uploaded on mobile chat application Snapchat.

The alleged victim later filed a complaint after her name was left out from a group assignment, and she was made to dance to get her name included in the project, which was an important part of the curriculum. This video was allegedly circulated on WhatsApp.

Sunil Deshmukh, assistant commissioner of police (Dadar Division) said, “The enquiry is being made at the college, to get the facts correct. Revealing any more details at this juncture would be soon.”

The accused have been booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal COde and section 4 of the Anti-Ragging Act.