Alleged ragging incident at CMC Vellore | Seven students suspended, six-member panel to inquire

The alleged ragging incident came to light following a video shared on Twitter; the college said it had received an anonymous email with a complaint last Sunday and has since suspended 7 students; the panel looking into the incident will submit a report to the anti-ragging cell, it said

The Christian Medical College (CMC), Vellore, has constituted a six-member special committee to inquire into the allegations of ragging of medical students by their seniors on the campus, after suspending seven senior students, who were named in an anonymous email the college received last Sunday, said CMC’s director, Vikram Mathew, on Wednesday.

Addressing media persons at the main campus, Dr. Mathew said that once the college received the email complaint last Sunday, it initiated action on the issue despite the anonymous nature of the email -- it did not have any sender’s name or other identity.

Seven students, who are said to be mostly third-year students, were suspended on Monday based on the email.

The report of the special committee, which comprises faculty members of various departments in the college, will be submitted to the anti-ragging cell, a mandatory unit in colleges, for appropriate action including initiating criminal proceedings such as filing a police case against those who were involved in the incident

“The incident is under investigation and a report will be submitted by the special committee in the next few days. We don’t condone ragging in any form. We also have zero tolerance on ragging,” Dr. Mathew said.

The alleged ragging incident came to light after Kartik Chadaar from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) shared a video of the incident on his Twitter handle on Sunday, tagging the college, Chief Minister M. K. Stalin, and others. Immediately, the video went viral on social media.

In the video, which was said to be shot on October 9, some students were paraded inside the men’s hostel half-naked (with only their underwear on) in the campus at Bagayam on the outskirts of Vellore. Water was sprayed on them from a hose and they were made to lie down in the mud and were made to perform some acts on the ground.