Kerala student serious after ’ragging’ at Kalaburagi college

Mangalore Today News Network

Thiruvananthapuram, Jun 22, 2016, DHNS: A female student from Kerala is left with serious oesophagus injuries after her seniors reportedly ragged her at a nursing college in Kalaburagi last month.

The girl, a first-year BSc (Nursing) student, hails from Edappal in Malappuram district and had joined the college in February. Her family said the incident occurred on May 9 at a hostel at the Al-Qamar College of Nursing, which is part of Al-Qamar Educational and Charitable Trust run by former minister Qamarul Islam. The college management, however, denied that the girl was injured while being ragged.

Her family said that a group of senior girl students, also from Kerala, forced her to drink toilet-cleaning lotion as part of the ragging. The incident left her vomiting blood. She passed out and was admitted to Basaveshwara Hospital in Kalaburagi. She alleged that she had been facing “mental torture” from the seniors.

The hospital authorities made a medico legal case that stated that she consumed poison. Officers from the jurisdictional Roza police station asked her parents to lodge a complaint once she recovers so that the matter could be investigated. Police pursued them after a couple of days too. But the girl was discharged a week later and taken to Kerala “discreetly”, a source in the police said.

Once in Kerala, she was admitted to a private hospital in Thrissur and later to the Medical College Hospital in Kozhikode. Her family said doctors were waiting for her condition to improve before they could operate upon her.

The college insisted that neither the girl nor her parents lodged any complaint about ragging. Asad Ali Ansari, a member of the Trust, said the girl had some “domestic problem”.

A spokesperson for the college said he was “surprised” that such allegations were being made now, after over 40 days. “The college administrator was at the hospital and was involved in the police procedures… the information we received was that she consumed a harmful substance. Police took the statement of the girl and her hostel mates, there was no mention of ragging,” he told Deccan Herald.

When Deccan Herald visited the college hostel on Tuesday, there was only one student of first-year BSc (Nursing) but she refused to speak.

Kalaburagi Superintendent of Police, N Shashikumar, said a complaint of ragging was lodged with the Kerala police and that they were waiting for the FIR to be transferred to them. Once that happens, an officer of the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police will investigate the matter.

Kerala Minister for Welfare of SC/ST and Backward Classes A K Balan told a television channel on Tuesday that the state government would pay for the girl’s medical treatment.