Seven students rusticated, 10 suspended
From Our Correspondent
Williamnagar, Sep 3: In a disturbing development, a student of Class X was hospitalised after he was allegedly ragged and abused by at least five of his seniors in the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya in Williamnagar, East Garo Hills.
The incident has sparked outrage in local circles with many seeking the strictest punishment for those that dished out physical abuse leading to the Class X student being hospitalised. He injured student was later rushed to the Tura Civil Hospital where his condition is said to be improving.
As per sources, the incident took place on September 1 when a huge group of students from Class XI called the victim to a room where he was surrounded by at least 15 seniors from Class XI. The physical assault of the student continued for some time before the the victim was let off.
Courageously, the Class X student approached the JNV authorities to report the matter. He was taken to the Williamnagar Civil Hospital for medical care. He had named at least five of the assaulters to the authorities before being taken for medical care.
On learning that their son had been assaulted, the parents lodged a police complaint. They also brought their son to Tura where he is currently being treated.
“The victim as well as the assaulters are all juveniles and as such will be tried under the Juvenile system. The matter is currently being investigated and we will submit a report on it soon. The assaulters will be booked under appropriate sections,” East Garo Hills SP, Siddharth Ambedkar said.
Following the incident and its report, JNV authorities launched an investigation into the incident where it found seven students guilty of physically assaulting the student while at least another 10 stood around to witness the assault.
“Seven students have been rusticated for their act and the other 10 have been temporarily suspended. We will be holding a meeting with the school authorities on the shortcomings that led to the incident and take a call on how to ensure such acts don’t repeat. The matter is most concerning,” Deputy Commissioner, Vibhor Agarwala said.
As per the latest, the victim is currently out of danger and is expected to be out of medical care in the next few days.
Worryingly this is not the only incident that had taken place. School authorities had earlier rusticated at least three other students for their involvement in ragging and assault from the same school. Many such incidents, according to sources, have not been reported out of fear of reprisals.