Despite a strict ban imposed by HRD Ministry, senior medical students forced over 100 juniors to tonsure their heads in the name of ragging and those who disobeyed their orders were thrashed at the Motilal Nehru Medical College in Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh.
Even the girl medical students of the first year were not spared. They were ordered to put oil in their heads and tie their heads while attending classes. Furthermore, the first year students of the prestigious medical college have been ordered to bow down to all workers of the college.
Out of 150 MBBS seats, 149 students including 40 girls have taken admission in the medical college this year. On their joining the college, seniors ragged them by directing them to tonsure their heads. Over 100 students followed the 'order' the next day.
The incident occurred a couple of days ago. Those who refused were thrashed. Two students were severely beaten by seniors when they tried to object.
“I refused to go by their order. I was beaten and not allowed to attend the class. They have warned us not to report to the anti-ragging cell in the college or the punishment would be more severe,” said a first-year student, who also tonsured his head.
The first year medical students are living under severe stress and fear. “The college administration knows about the whole episode but has not initiated any action against seniors. They are asking us to file a written complaint,” said another first-year student.
“They have threatened to ruin our careers if we filed any complaint to the college authorities,” said a girl student.
Ironically, the medical college administration has an Anti-Ragging team with Principal Dr SP Singh, Dr Sachin Jain, Dr RB Kamal, Dr Devasheesh Sharma, Dr Santosh Kumar Dr AK Varma and Dr Shabi Ahmad as its members.
The Principal Dr S.P. Singh is on leave. “We have not received any complaint of ragging from first year students. The administration will certainly initiate action against seniors if found guilty. We have asked Dr Santosh Kumar to probe the tonsuring incident while the Anti-Ragging commando members are also keeping an eye on any such incident within the college campus,” said Dr Vatshla Mishra, Acting Principal.
