Further details have emerged of the shocking case of ragging that allegedly occurred in a hostel on the North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU) Tura campus.
The victim was a student from Nagaland and was subjected to abuse at the hands of seniors. Some of the ragging was communal in nature.
The student was of the Department of Agri Business Management in NEHU and it was his first day on campus when he was subjected to ragging inside the Arabella Boys’ Hostel on October 8 at around 1:30am to 2am.
On the night in question, he was led by a group of students who had knocked on his dorm room door and taken to an empty room in the building.
These other students trained flashlights on his face so that he could not identify them properly. He did, however, note that they were fluent in Hindi. This was after they ordered him to introduce himself in Hindi and were unhappy with his lack of fluency in the language. Thereafter, he was instructed to “entertain” the others and perform a “naked dance” as he was a Naga.
Although he pleaded with his tormentors, the victim was threatened into stripping in front of them. In his recounting of the incident, he said that the perpetrators may have recorded video of him on their phones. After he broke down in front of them, they threatened him with grave consequences if he complained about what they put him through.
Humiliated and fearful, he left the hostel the next morning and went back to Nagaland, where he formally lodged a complaint with police.
The Naga Students’ Union (NSU) in Shillong has written to NEHU Vice Chancellor Prof Prabha Shankar Shukla asking the university to immediately intervene to secure justice for the student within 24 hours.
The NSUS said the concern authority should take legal actions and file an FIR, facilitate the victim student to transfer to another central university of the same course, implement stringent disciplinary actions against the perpetrators in accordance with the university’s Anti ragging policies and pertinent laws (such as UGC’s Regulations on curbing the menace of Ragging in Higher Educational Institutions, 2002), expel perpetrators from the university, transparent communication from the university and that NEHU should align with the UGC’s regulations on curbing ragging to bolster community building endeavours, with a special focus on every incoming freshers.
“Such an undisciplined and heinous incident has brought a great shame to the student’s community and should never be encouraged elsewhere,” union President Chiran Shimrah said.
He said if the university fails to take necessary actions the union will call for strikes and boycotts against NEHU.
