Patna, Sep 13 (IANS): As many as 10 engineering students have been booked for ragging a first-year student, officials said Friday.

The case was lodged nearly a week after engineering student Raj Aryan left the engineering college in Bihar's Muzaffarpur district following harassment and physical abuse in the guise of ragging by seniors, officials said.

Raj Aryan, a first-year student of information technology of Muzaffarpur Institute of Technology (MIT), left the institute Sep 5.

"I had taken admission Aug 17 but ragging by senior students forced me to apply for a transfer certificate Sep 3 and finally I left the institute to escape ragging," said Raj Aryan who is a resident of a village in Patna district.

Muzaffarpur District Magistrate Anupam Kumar said that police have lodged a case against 10 students of MIT for ragging.

"I have also directed the authorities of MIT to take action against the students found involved in ragging of Raj Aryan," Kumar said.

Ravikant Jha, a district police official, said that First Information Report (FIR) was lodged against them on the basis of a statement of Raj Aryan's father Ajit Prasad.

"Had he (Aryan) not collected his transfer certificate, my son would have been killed or forced to commit suicide because of the torture meted out to him," Prasad stated in the FIR.

Prasad said that his son repeatedly told him that first-year students residing in hostels and on the MIT premises were paraded naked in the dark. He also said they were humiliated and physically tortured.

MIT principal Kumar Surendra said that institute will take action against students after submission of report by anti-ragging cell that is probing it.