Chennai: After dress code, students now allege physical torture by Sri Sairam Engineering College officials

After the dress code fiasco, students of Sri Sairam Engineering College now allege torture by college officials. A video where students allege torture by the college officials  for questioning college rules has become a hot topic on social media.

Over the past few weeks there has been a controversy over dress codes in colleges in Chennai. This controversy started with an alleged circular by Sri Sairam Engineering College which didn't allow female students to wear leggings, high heels, short kurtas, patialas, large watches or leave their hair loose among other stipulations.

A report in The New Indian Express states that alumni of Sri Sairam Engineering College uploaded a video YouTube on Saturday where they allege that college officials beat them when they questioned the college rules. They even state that there are ‘dark rooms’ for this purpose on campus.

The video is titled “Confessions on Balu’s Human Rights Violations” and students from the 2003-07 batch from Sri Sairam Engineering College are featured in the video. They talk about being physical beaten with ‘lathis’ in ‘dark rooms’ by the hostel supervisor Balu. The former student who uploaded the video, Zaufer Sadiq, told Express that four feet long batons were used to beat students and seniors call this ‘black room treatment’. 

One of the students on the video speaks about the psychological impact of having been beaten while another says he had suicidal thoughts adds the report. 

Watch the video:

Students from the college protested against the new rules and regulations recently. These included ban on talking to members of the opposite sex, dress codes and fines. Anna University subsequently appointed a committee to look into the students complaints. 

Also read: Chennai engineering college students protest fines imposed on female students wearing jeans, leggings