VSSUT student ragged, thrashed by seniors in Odisha; Police complaint filed

Sambalpur: A student of the Veer Surendra Sai University of Technology (VSSUT) at Burla in Odisha’s Sambalpur district has lodged a complaint with police alleging that he was ragged and thrashed by his seniors, yesterday.

As per the FIR filed by victim Manash Singh, a B.Tech 2nd year student, he had gone to Kirba Chhak with his friend last evening around 8 pm, during which six of his seniors were present at a shop in an inebriated state.

They called Singh and asked him whether he knew their names or not. As he couldn’t tell their names, they thrashed him by punching his face, neck, back and other parts of body, he alleged.

They also grabbed his neck and choked him, he added.

The victim later informed his family members about the incident and went to the Burla police station with his brother to file the complaint.

Singh has mentioned the names of the six accused in the FIR.

Police have started an investigation into the incident. Till last reports came in, no arrests were made in the case.

Earlier in September, as many as 12 students of the Veer Surendra Sai University of Technology (VSSUT) were usticated by the varsity authorities for allegedly attacking and injuring a hostel inmate.

According to reports, all of them had attacked the victim, a student of Electrical Department, at the hostel on September 22 over an issue pertaining to a girl student of the educational institution.

The hostel inmate had sustained critical injuries in the attack and was hospitalised.

A committee was formed by the VSSUT authorities to probe into the matter. After submission of the preliminary report, the accused students were asked to vacate the campus while they were rusticated after submission of the final report.

In 2019, as many as ten students of VSSUT were debarred from appearing in exams for a period of one year over ragging incident.

This apart, 52 hostel boarders who had involvement in the ragging, were fined Rs 2,000 each.

Several students of VSSUT were allegedly ragged by their seniors, videos of which had surfaced. In the videos, the senior students were seen slapping their juniors and making them do pole dance with the latter posing as poles. The ragging horror didn’t stop there as the freshers were made to dance in undergarments.

The incidents took place at the hostel welcome ceremony and inside the hostel. The clips had gone viral on social media platforms.