26 students of the Institute of Infrastructure Technology Research and Management (IITRAM) in Ahmedabad, Gujarat are under detention by the authorities for a period ranging from three weeks to one year in link with an incident of mass ragging at the campus.
As many as 26 students are in second year from three engineering branches of civil, mechanical and electrical. “Based on the severity of their acts, five have been put under detention for three weeks, 16 for three months and five for two semesters (one year),” said IITRAM Registrar N N Bhuptani.
Sources said that the incident of mass ragging came to the notice of college authorities only in the second week of September during a routine check of surveillance cameras installed on the campus. Authorities were alarmed to see that first year students, totalling 160, were forced to do physical activities like sit-ups and push-ups by their seniors. Similar incidents were recorded on September 1, 4 and 16.
“During the investigation, the first-year students told the college authorities that the same seniors forcibly asked them to fill a questionnaire of 50 indecent questions prepared by them. As an evidence, the ragging prevention committee also has the copy of this questionnaire,” said Anju Sharma, Principal Secretary, Education.
“Though we do not have any footage for that but these charges were proved and the accused students also accepted committing the an act,” said Bhuptani.
IITRAM, an autonomous university established by the Gujarat government in 2013, is said to beas one of the finest engineering institutes in Gujarat.