At JNTU Anantapur, 18 students suspended for ragging, further inquiry to begin today

As many as 18 students have been suspended by authorities of the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University - Anantapur (JNTU-A) for allegedly ragging their juniors.

It was alleged that seniors called first-year students on their mobile phones and harassed them. The seniors even asked a few juniors to visit their hostel rooms where the latter were forced to dance partially nude. Upon this, the juniors were reportedly given threats and asked not to inform the professors, or anyone else for that matter, about this. 

It is since December last year, when the hostel facility was started for students, that these seniors have been allegedly harassing their juniors. 

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P Sujatha, Principal, JNTU-A engineering college, shared that after receiving information that as many as three juniors were not to be found in their rooms during the routine checks that were conducted on February 4, the principal accompanied by professors, visited the hostels, inquired about the students and received confirmation that they were missing. Only after these missing students got back to their hostel and were questioned by authorities, the students informed them that they were on campus.  

Sources, on February 5, stated that it was Chundupalli Sashidha, Registrar, JNTU-A, who received a phone call from a parent of a first-year student about the alleged ragging. Upon this, the case of missing students urged the authorities at the university to conduct an inquiry. 

The principal shared that, as per seniors, they had only asked the names of the juniors and did not rag them, but it was the authorities at the university who made it clear that what they had done amounts to ragging and as a consequence, they will have to face action. 

"As a disciplinary measure, we have placed the 18 students under suspension from hostels as well as from attending classes," P Sujatha said adding that an internal anti-ragging committee is already in place at the university. Along with this, the college academic council will be conducting an inquiry today, February 7, to understand if there was ragging involved and exactly how many students were involved.