Patan (Gujarat):

Police on Monday arrested 15 second-year students of a medical college in Gujarat’s Patan district and charged them with culpable homicide not amounting to murder after the death of their junior allegedly due to ragging, an official said.

The accused, all second-year MBBS students, allegedly made some of their juniors, including the victim, Anil Methaniya (18), stand in a hostel room for more than three hours on Saturday night and subjected them to “mental and physical torture,” as per the First Information Report (FIR) filed on a complaint by college authorities.

They were booked for culpable homicide not amounting to murder among other offences, it said.

“We have arrested all the 15 accused,” inspector of the Balisana police station in Patan, PJ Solanki, said.

After the filing of the FIR, the accused students were suspended from their hostel and academic activities until further orders, said officials from the GMERS Medical College and Hospital, where the incident took place, at Dharpur in Patan district.

Methaniya, a first-year MBBS student, fell unconscious and died allegedly after being made to stand for three hours during a ragging session by his seniors at a hostel of the college on Saturday night, the institute’s dean, Dr Hardik Shah, said on Sunday.

The college’s anti-ragging committee chaired by Dr Shah recorded the statements of 26 students — 11 of the first-year and 15 of the second-year — in connection with the incident.

The committee found 11 first-year students were subjected to ragging by a group of 15 seniors from the second-year, a college official said on Monday.

As per the FIR lodged at the Balisana police station shortly after midnight on Monday, the 15 accused called 11 first-year students, including Methaniya and his classmates, to a hostel room on Saturday night for “introduction”.

They made the juniors stand for nearly three-and-a half hours while forcing them to sing, dance, utter abusive words and not leave the room, said the police document.

Methaniya’s health deteriorated as the students were subjected to mental and physical torture. The victim fainted and collapsed at around midnight. He was rushed to a hospital where doctors declared him brought dead, the FIR stated.

Based on a complaint by the college’s additional dean, Dr Anil Bhathija, an FIR was lodged against 15 students under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) sections for culpable homicide not amounting to murder, wrongful confinement, unlawful assembly, and using obscene words. 

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