After trying and failing to impose their will on a fellow student, some students from a private university in Himachal Pradesh kept him confined to a room for the entire night, thrashed him and whipped him with a belt. His crime? The students wanted him to drink alcohol and he refused.
The assault on the student was caught on camera and five of his college mates, most of whom are younger than him, have been arrested.
According to the first information report (FIR) filed in the case, 22-year-old Rajat Kumar, a first-year MBA student at Bahra University in Himachal Pradesh’s Solan, who lived in the university hostel, was asked by two of his fellow students to accompany them to another room on Saturday. When Kumar refused, they dragged him to the room, where a few other students were present. The students asked Kumar to consume alcohol and beat him up – raining kicks and punches and whipping him with a belt – when he refused.
A video, which appears to be shot by a student on his cellphone, shows Kumar sitting on a chair, facing a few other students. A conversation takes place and when the word complaint is mentioned, one of the students stands up menacingly, moves close to Kumar and slaps him. He is made to sit down by another student, who has his arm around Kumar.
The apparent saviour turns into an assaulter himself soon after, however, launching a volley of abuses at Kumar and slapping him. The second student slaps Kumar again and the first gets up, picks up a belt and starts whipping him. The video shows Kumar also being punched by the students as the other people in the room remain mute spectators.
As the conversation and the assault continues, one of the students approaches Kumar with a bottle of liquor and a glass and offers him a peg, directing him to drink it and then become a ‘murga’ (sit in a semi-squatting posture as a punishment). Kumar refuses to have the drink and says he made a mistake, but one of the assaulters asks him to have a beer if he does not want hard liquor. The student instructs one of the people in the room to get the beer quickly and warns him that he would be beaten up if he did not comply.
Arrests
The university initiated an inquiry against Kumar’s assaulters and the anti-ragging committee asked them to appear before it, but the students refused. Solan Suprintendent of Police Gaurav Singh said Kumar filed a complaint at the Kandaghat police station, which registered a case against the students under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the Himachal Pradesh Educational Institutions (Prohibition of Ragging) Act, 2009.
Three students – Chirag Rana, Divyansh and Karan Dogra, all aged 19 – were arrested after the complaint was filed and two more – Kartik, 19, and Saksham, 22 – were taken into custody on Wednesday. Officials said all of them will be produced in court.
(With inputs from Yogesh Sharma)
