New Delhi: The Indian Institute of Technology, Mandi (IIT-Mandi) has ordered a restriction between seniors and freshmen for a complete semester, owing to a fresh incident of ragging took place in the campus.
As per the Indian Express, the management had taken disciplinary action against 72 students in which, 10 students have been suspended for six months. This came after accusations of carrying out the restricted activity of ragging new students against the seniors were made.
The incident reportedly took place on August 11, Professor Laxmidhar Behera, Principal of IIT-Mandi, said in an email to all students on August 20 that the seniors “violated” “laxman rekha (off limit)” and 72 of them were found “guilty of participating in ragging to various degrees”.
Seniors are subject to various penalties: a fine of Rs 15,000 and 20 hours of community service; fine of Rs 20,000 and 40 hours of community service; fine of Rs 25,000 and 60 hours of community service; and a six-month suspension from school and home, said the report.
As many as 10 suspended students, including 3 members of the student union office, who were responsible for organizing the “early year association” and those who had been dismissed, left their dorm rooms.
Meanwhile, many students among those who were punished have asked the authorities to have their punishment reviewed. They claimed that a prank given to new students every year during the “freshman shuffle” was misinterpreted as rambling.
Anonymous Complaints About August 10 Event
IIT-Mandi took action after investigating anonymous complaints about an event organized by seniors on August 11.
During the institute’s investigation of the complaints, the seniors defended themselves by claiming that it was a joke often played with freshmen every year in the “mixer”, where they initially was bullied and later learned that it was a joke, but it was misunderstood this time.
Meanwhile the students claimed that they were asked to switch off their phones so nobody could record a thing. A fresher said they called juniors on stage and started yelling at them, while asking them questions that were asked already in a form given in the beginning of the event.
The juniors were even told to stand in the corner in a semi-squat position.