India’s ragging menace: Horror stories from across campuses

The next morning, his condition deteriorated rapidly as he began vomiting and showing signs of neurological damage. Medical examinations revealed severe internal head injuries and brain haemorrhage. The 19-year-old was pronounced dead on March 8, 2009. The post-mortem report confirmed that he died from traumatic brain injury resulting from multiple blunt force traumas to his head.

The grisly death sparked a wave of anger that swept the country, prompting the University Grants Commission to issue new anti-ragging guidelines and ordering the registration of FIRs in ragging cases. The four offending students were convicted of culpable homicide, sentenced to four years in jail, released after two years for good conduct, and later allowed to complete their degrees. For a while, it seemed that the menace was being brought under control.

But on June 5 last year, the illusion cracked. Two students from the 2019 batch were found guilty of injuring, harassing and bullying a junior. The junior was physically assaulted, after which the matter was referred to anti-ragging committee. The panel, after inquiry, recommended disciplinary action against the students involved and they were suspended. However, the college officials said that the injuries were “not grievous”. The students were reinstated later.

Just three days prior, two 2021 batch students were caught harassing their juniors through WhatsApp texts. The incident reportedly occurred on June 2 but no physical assault was involved. No police case was filed in either cases.

“In the name of introduction, we are bullied and beaten but no one complains as if we lodge a complaint our class students stop talking to us,” said a student, requesting anonymity over safety concerns.

Milap Sharma, the principal of the college, acknowledged the cases but said that the problem was that complainants in ragging incidents aren’t kept confidential. “Identification of the students who complain about ragging should be kept confidential and not disclosed to accused students or even their families…Only then students will speak up freely,” he said.

The twin incidents at the college, considered by many as the birthplace of the anti-ragging movement in India, underline ragging cases that had dipped after a crackdown by the UGC last decade, but appear to be on the rise again. HT took a look at five prominent cases across the country over the last two years.

Witnesses turn hostile, suspension of accused students revoked

“No father is more helpless than me. Every day, my son sits with those same seniors in the college who ragged him. I only get scared, but can’t do anything,” said Dipen Vyas, whose 20-year-old son in Rajasthan’s Dungarpur Medical College had to undergo dialysis four times after allegedly being ragged by seven seniors on May 15, 2024.

Dipen is a local spiritual leader and his wife is a school teacher. They have two children; the elder son Pratham Vyas was admitted to the Dungarpur Medical College in September 2023. “He was a good student. We thought he would take responsibility for our family,” said Dipen.

On May 15, 2024, at least seven second-year students made Pratham and 10 other first-year students do 300 sit-ups during a scorching summer day at a hillock near the college. This exerted severe pressure on his kidney muscle, leading to a malfunction and an infection.

On the same evening, he returned home and fell sick. His family rushed him to a local hospital from where he was also referred to Udaipur the very next day. He spent eight days at a hospital in Ahmedabad between May 22 and May 30, 2024, and underwent dialysis four times.

Pratham is now weak, and his health keeps deteriorating frequently. He rejoined college on June 20. The college lodged an FIR on June 25 and suspended the seven students fora year. The case was filed under sections 143 (unlawful assembly), 147 (rioting), 149 (member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object), 323 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt), 341 (wrongful restraint) and 352 (punishment for assault or criminal force otherwise than on grave provocation) of the Indian Penal Code against Devendra Meena, Ankit Yadav, Siddharth Parihar, Ravindra Kulriya, Surjit Kumar, Vishvendra Dayal, Aman Ragera.

But the charge sheet was filed only against Devendra on October 1, 2024. Police said the other six had no role in the case. “During the investigation, it was found that Devendra was the only one who had organised the entire ragging incident- from gathering the junior students, taking them to the hill point, and making them do the sit-ups,” said the then station house officer and the investigating officer (IO), Giridhari Singh. “We did not find any evidence of the presence of any of the other accused.”

Devendra was arrested on the same day. The next day, he made bail. “Despite having all the serious medical reports from Ahmedabad, the local doctor found some minor damage and failed to relate it to the ragging incident, which went in Devendra’s favour,” said a police officer, requesting anonymity.

The officer also said that all witnesses turned hostile. “The witnesses were the other 10 victims who were ragged along with Pratham on May 15. However, none of them admitted to the incident,” the officer added.

The case is pending in the Dungarpur district court. But things appear to be moving slowly. “There was no hearing in the case so far. When Devendra got bail, I also wrote to the collector but there was no response,” Dipen said.

On November 4, the college revoked the suspension of the seven accused. “Since none of them were found guilty in the police investigation, we had to revoke all their suspension. All of them were permitted to enter the college again. We can’t bar any student from pursuing their education based on some allegations,” said S Bala Murugan Vellu, college principal.

Pratham has now gone back to the same college. “He had already lost two months and didn’t want his study to be hampered more,” said his father. “But I don’t understand – isn’t he afraid?”

Student killed, seniors out on bail but trial yet to begin

On February 18, 2024, T Jayaprakash, a supervisor at a private firm in Dubai, got a phone call from his anxious wife and relatives relaying that his elder son JS Siddharth had died by suicide at the College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Wayanad.

“The college dean MK Narayanan told us that he killed himself due to romantic failure. I refused to believe it. When we looked at his body, we found a lot of marks and injuries signifying some form of assault. We knew then that this was no ordinary death,” Jayaprakash said.

At his funeral, some of his friends told the family that the second-year student was brutally assaulted, stripped, and denied food and water for nearly two days inside the college hostel for two days – all part of an elaborate ragging ritual – before he was found dead inside the hostel washroom.

Eighteen people were named as suspects – all members of the Students Federation of India, the student wing of the ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist).

As media attention grew, the Pinarayi Vijayan government was forced to hand over the probe to a special investigation team, which arrested the 18 students, including SFI unit secretary Amal Ehsan, the college union chairman K Arun and union member Asif Khan. Vice-chancellor MR Saseendranath was suspended by then governor Arif Mohammed Khan for alleged oversight and dereliction of duty.

The family went to the Kerala high court, which handed over the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation in March 2024. In April 2024, CBI filed an FIR against 21 people for criminal conspiracy, abetment to suicide, voluntarily causing hurt, wrongful restraint and violating the Prohibition of Ragging Act, 2011.

In May 2024, all the accused were released on conditional bail by the high court. They did not return to the campus and were directed to re-apply in the Mannuthy campus of the university, and not in Wayanad. On February 5, 2025, a division bench of the high court stayed a single judge’s order from December 5, 2024, readmitting the accused students. The trial is yet to begin.

“The postmortem report is very clear that the body had so many injuries that he would be able to barely stand, let alone hang himself. He can never die by suicide. I know that 100%. They killed him,” said Jayaprakash.

HT reached out to police, which did not comment on the matter saying the case has now been transferred to CBI. The university officials did not respond to calls.

Special rules for central govt varsities means no arrests or detention

In March 2023, two second-year students were assaulted by a group of seniors. On April 2, police registered a case against 18 students. The first victim, Siddharth Paitya, said he was beaten with hockey sticks and severely injured. The second victim was his batchmate, Sushmit Gupta, who sustained injuries while trying to protect Paitya.

The incident happened on March 31 and Paitya, a fourth semester student of NIT Silchar, was rushed to Silchar Medical College and Hospital in a critical condition. He lodged an FIR against 18 seniors at Ghungoor Police outpost on April 1.

Paitya said he had been bullied by some seniors on the basis of his mother tongue and locality since the day he joined NIT Silchar. A resident of Silchar town, Paitya stayed on campus on March 31 for some work. He parked his car in front of hostel 6 and the seniors vandalised his car before attacking him. “That day, when I tried to save my car, they started hitting me and it continued for nearly an hour till I fell unconscious,” he said.

Paitya’s mother said there were severe cuts and injuries. “It was horrifying, seeing him in such a condition was tough for me,” she said.

In the FIR, Paitya named Sparsh Munakhia, Yogesh Kakodiya, Biswajit Deb Nath, Yash Triparthi, Abhijeet Kalita, Dhritiman Das, Sourav Deka, Shohan Paul, Pratyush Rai, Prafful Chatham, Anas Ahmed, Prateek vij, Dixit Agarwal, Mehul Dewangam, Raj Parishad, Satyabrata Both, Suprateek Gogoi, Biki Das as prime accused.

The accused students however refused to talk to the media. The superintendent of police, Cachar district, Numal Mahatta said they registered a case based on the complaint and discussed the matter with the NIT Silchar authorities.

NIT Silchar authorities formed a committee to investigate the matter. However, Paitya’s family claimed that they were forced to withdraw the case. “We were forced by many to withdraw my complaint but I didn’t respond to this. I am going to complete my degree this year but I’ll fight for justice,” Paitya said.

According to police records, the accused students were interrogated but they were never detained or arrested. NIT authorities only took some disciplinary actions against some of the students.

Authorities at NIT Silchar said they believed in “discussions over taking strict action”. “They are young minds and they are brilliant students. The unlawful acts are never encountered but going too strict is also not a solution,” a senior professor said.

Mahatta said the students were not arrested because there are some “special rules for central government educational institutions”, but the cases were investigated, and the students were interrogated. “Institutes like NIT have their own disciplinary committee. They investigate such issues and take action. However, when we receive complaints, we investigate and the authorities support us,” he said.

Multiple episodes of assault at Bhavnagar medical college

On the night of March 6, Ishan Kumar Kotak and his friend Akash Karthiya, 23, were abducted from Navjeevan Circle in Bhavnagar. They were forced into a car, slapped, punched, and verbally abused while being made to utter profanities. The ordeal continued for over three hours, during which they were driven around the city and threatened with death. The perpetrators, according to them, however, were not ordinary criminals but seniors from their college, Government Medical College, Bhavnagar.

Hours later, on March 7 at around 2.15am, another first-year student, Aman Joshi, 24, was dragged from his hostel room by two final year students, and taken to another room where seniors referred to the earlier attack on Kotak and Karthiya, warning that Joshi would meet the same fate. He was slapped multiple times, verbally abused, and forced into humiliating positions while being threatened with death.

The trigger, according to the three victims, was an Instagram page titled ‘Convocation Speaks,’ where Kotak, Karthiya and others cracked jokes about the college – something the senior students considered disrespectful. The victims also previously disagreed with the seniors over college event planning, which further escalated tensions.

On March 8, Bhavnagar Police registered two FIRs against six final-year MBBS students for allegedly assaulting, wrongfully confining, and threatening the three first-year students. The accused — Milan Kakalotar, Piyush Chauhan, Naren Choudhary, Man Patel, Abhiraj Parmar, and Balbhadrasinh — were booked under section 140(3) for wrongful confinement, section 115(2) for criminal intimidation with a threat to cause death or grievous hurt, section 352 for assault, section 351(2) for the use of criminal force, section 296(b) for intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace, and section 3(5) for group assault.

Sushil Jha, the college dean, said that the anti-ragging committee suspended four accused students immediately and withheld their degree certificates. “It is a case of ragging. The accused, currently completing MBBS internships, will have their case reviewed further when the anti-ragging committee reconvenes next week,” he said. Kotak, Joshi, and Karthiya were admitted to a hospital for treatment.