Eight present students among nine named in FIR
HT Correspondent
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Jorhat, Dec 2: A case has been lodged against nine people, including eight present students, by a premier college in Assam’s Jorhat district on allegations of ragging raised by a junior hostel inmate.
The police have started an investigation though no arrests have been made thus far, an official source said.
The principal of Jagannath Barooah (JB) College had filed a complaint at Jorhat Police Station on Thursday against the nine accused based on a written submission from the aggrieved student.
Earlier, the police officer had said that a case was lodged against 12 people by the college authorities.
The case comes close on the heels of two instances of alleged ragging in Dibrugarh.
Giving details of the J B College incident, a police officer said, “We received the complaint on Thursday evening. After going through it, we lodged an FIR today.”
The FIR has named eight present and one former students of the institute as among the accused for indulging in ragging.
The college authorities said the student in the first semester of the three-year degree course had approached the Syed Abdul Malik Hostel authorities in early September with a complaint of “facing an uncomfortable situation in the hostel. The student has since then left the hostel.”
The decision to file the FIR was taken as the student re-approached the authorities three days back, they said.
The anti-ragging committee of the college has also been entrusted with probing the matter and it will submit its report within seven to 10 days, the college authorities added.
A police official stated that after the FIR was lodged, police have registered a case under Sections 341, 325, 506, 34 of the Indian Penal Code read with Section 4 of the Assam Prohibition of Ragging Act, 1998 and names of nine students were mentioned as accused in the complaint by the principal quoting from the complaint received by the college from Pranab Jyoti Chetia (Student).
The official said that police have started an investigation into the case.
It may be mentioned here that Pranab Jyoti (Assamese Major), who hails from North Lakhimpur district, uploaded a post on social media platform on November 27 night alleging mental and physical harassment by his senior students at the Syed Abdul Malik hostel on a daily basis, especially during night.
JB College (Autonomous) vice-principal, (Academic, Arts) Dr Surajit Sharma said that on Friday that Chetia on Wednesday lodged a complaint with the college principal regarding the harassment faced him (Pranab Jyoti) in September 2022 in regard to ragging by nine senior students, out of which one is now a former student.
Pranab Jyoti also has mentioned names of three students who allegedly had pressured him to withdraw the earlier complaint.
AASU probe demand to Jorhat DC
Meanwhile, the Jorhat sub-divisional unit of the AASU on Friday submitted a memorandum to the Jorhat deputy commissioner seeking ordering an high-level enquiry into the complaint of ragging raised by Pranab Jyoti Chetia.
The memorandum, signed by president and general secretary (Jorhat sub-divisional AASU) – Niharika Saikia and Riyaz Hussain respectively, has urged the deputy commissioner to institute a probe into the charges and bring the guilty to the book. (With inputs from PTI)
