Kottayam, Feb 15 (IANS): The further studies of the five arrested third-year nursing students, currently in jail for ragging first-year student at the state-run Nursing College hostel in Kottayam, have been stopped. The Nursing Council made this decision on Saturday and informed the Health Department and the State Government.
This means that these five accused cannot study further in any of the colleges in Kerala.
At the same time, four more complaints from junior students were registered on Saturday. The Kerala Police probe team raided the hostel and recovered crucial evidence of the materials used by the five students to cause bodily injuries to the first-year student.
The Principal of the institution, A.T. Suleka, and Assistant Professor Ajeesh P. Mani have been suspended from service. The hostel housekeeper and security official, both employed on contract, have been removed from service.
Kottayam legislator and former State Home Minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan demanded that the ongoing case be monitored by a court.
State BJP president K. Surendran announced that BJP workers would launch a program to curtail ragging, allegedly led by the student wing of the CPI-M -- SFI.
"The reports reveal that these activities conducted by SFI activists are worse than how terror organisations deal. SFI has turned into an anti-social organisation. The CM Vijayan government and the CPI-M are providing support, which is why previous ragging cases do not reach a logical conclusion, and SFI members escape the law. We will start an anti-ragging help desk in all 14 districts, with the first one in Kottayam. All can fearlessly contact the desk," said Surendran.
Earlier on Wednesday, third-year students Rahul Raj, NS Jeeva, N.P. Vivek, Rigil Jeeth, and Samuel Johnson were arrested and later sent to judicial custody after a first-year student filed a complaint with the police on February 11.
The visuals of the brutal assault on an innocent first-year student aired on Malayalam TV channels, sending shockwaves. In the footage, senior students could be seen laughing and making lewd comments while the victim was tied to a bed, a heavy object placed on his private parts, and his body injured with a compass.
The college authorities' role has come under scrutiny as they claimed ignorance of the incident. First-year students were threatened with dire consequences if they reported the matter. It has now emerged that the senior students were engaged in this act to collect money for buying drugs and liquor.
Although the name of the SFI has been mentioned as those behind this cruel ragging act, its state secretary P.M. Arsho dismissed it as a baseless allegation, stating that none of their activists are involved in the case.