Ragging at Coimbatore college | FIR reveals victim student was locked up in room for five hours

After locking the door from inside, the accused students of PSG College of Technology in Coimbatore allegedly beat the victim up with a belt, taking turns, the FIR said.

A view of PSG College of Technology in Coimbatore. File | Photo Credit: M. Periasamy

A second-year undergraduate student of PSG College of Technology in Coimbatore, a government-aided institution, who was ragged by eight other students in college hostel recently, was locked up in a room for about five hours, according to a First Information Report (FIR).

The boy was staying in a room on the first floor of the hostel. The eight students entered his room around 11.30 p.m. on November 6, and hurled abuses at him as he had allegedly not given money to seniors for buying alcohol.

They took him to room 401 on the fourth floor of the same block. After locking the door from inside, they allegedly beat him up, taking turns. They also beat him up with a belt, ignoring his pleas to be spared, the FIR registered by the police said.

According to it, the first accused, Ram Santhosh, 22, of Alanganallur shouted “start music”, and the others started to jeer and held the victim firmly. Another accused, Venkatesh, took a trimmer and clipped the victim’s hair from behind, while Santhosh trimmed from the front and the others cheered.

Around 5.30 a.m. the next day, B. Naveen, alias Yashish, 22, of Namakkal told the victim that he looked “handsome” (with his hair trimmed) and asked him to leave the room. However, Santhosh and Venkatesh allegedly asked him to kneel down and clean the trimmed hair before leaving. They also threatened to beat him to death with the belt if he disclosed the incident to anyone.

When the victim finally came out, two students who were waiting outside consoled him. When the duo was about to escort him to his room, Santhosh and Venkatesh allegedly warned that they would also face the same treatment if they refused to give them money. The victim disclosed the ordeal to his parents in Tiruppur over a call in the afternoon. They came to Coimbatore and took him to the Peelamedu station, where a complaint was lodged.

G. Dharanitharan, 20, of Karur; B. Ayyappan, 20, of Sivaganga; P. Nithyanadarajan, 20, of Theni; S. Manikandan, 20, of Ramanathapuram; and Mohammed Dilfer Sha, 21, of Lakshadweep; Santhosh and Naveen were arrested on Wednesday. The police are on the lookout for Venkatesh.

They were booked for offences under Sections 143 (punishment for unlawful assembly), 294 (b) (obscene acts and songs), 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt), 324 (voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons or means), 342 (punishment for wrongful confinement), 355 (assault or criminal force with intent to dishonour person, otherwise than on grave provocation), 506 (2) (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 4 (penalty for ragging) of the Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Ragging Act, 1997.