The five senior students of the Kottayam Nursing College. |
Thiruvananthapuram: The five senior students of the Kottayam Nursing College, involved in the brutal ragging of junior students, were remanded to 14-day custody Thursday even as the video of the torture and screaming emerged on social media sending the student community and the state into a shock.
In the video, the first year students were seen tied up as the seniors poked them with dividers in a compass box, counting one to ten. The victims were seen screaming and pleading for mercy but the seniors joked and laughed at their plight.
Disturbing Visuals
Minutes later the seniors counted the depth of the wounds and poured burning lotion into them. Later, the seniors were heard asking the victims to close their eyes as they poured the burning lotion into their mouths.
Meanwhile, the police Thursday questioned the school principal and the hostel warden. Both of them said they were not aware of the torture as the students did not report the issue.
The arrested have been identified as Samuel Johnson, Jeeva N S, Rahul Raj K P, Rijiljith C and Vivek N V – all in their 20s.
Police said the activity began last November, shortly after classes of the first-year batch began.
The senior students regularly extorted money from juniors to buy alcohol and frequently assaulted them.
After a preliminary investigation by the internal committee, authorities lodged a complaint with Kottayam Gandhinagar police. A commission has been constituted to conduct a detailed in-house probe.
“The Directorate of Medical Education and the Kerala Nurses and Midwives Council have also been alerted of the incidents,” Lini Joseph, the principal in-charge, was quoted in the media.
“The college has an active anti-ragging committee and an anti-ragging squad that frequently conducts inspections in the college as well as at the hostel. However, none of these students had reported any incident of abuse before,” she added.
