Gujarat: 15 Arrested As 1st Year MBBS Student Dies Due To Ragging

In a development on the Gujarat ragging case, the police have detained 15 students of a medical college in Gujarat’s Patan district. The second-year MBBS students are reported to have been charged with culpable homicide, not amounting to murder following the death of the junior due to the ragging.

What Happened?

According to the officials, the accused had allegedly made a few of the junior students, including the victim, Anil Methaniya (18), stand in a hostel room for over three hours at night on Saturday. The First Information Report (FIR) that was filed by the college authorities stated that the accused students allegedly subjected the juniors to “mental and physical torture.” It further read the charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder that the students were booked under.

Accused Detained by Police

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

The officials from the GMERS Medical College and Hospital, where the event occurred, in Dharpur, Patan district, said that the accused students were suspended from their academic and residential activities till further directives were given following the filing of the FIR.

According to the institute’s dean, Dr. Hardik Shah, Methaniya, a first-year MBBS student, passed away on Sunday after allegedly being forced to stand for three hours during a ragging session by his seniors at a college dorm on Saturday night.

The Incident As Per Police Records

Methaniya and his friends were among the 11 first-year students who were summoned to a dorm room on Saturday night for “introduction” by the 15 accused, according to the formal complaint filed at the Balisana police station just after midnight on Monday.

According to the police record, they forced the juniors to stand for almost three and a half hours while singing, dancing, using foul language, and staying in the room. As the pupils endured physical and psychological abuse, Methaniya’s condition worsened. Around midnight, the victim passed out and fell on the ground. The FIR said that after being taken to a hospital, doctors pronounced him deceased.

Under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) sections, a formal complaint was filed against 15 students for culpable homicide not amounting to murder, wrongful confinement, unlawful assembly, and using profanity. The complaint was made by Dr. Anil Bhathija, the college’s extra dean.