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| Troubled zone: NIT |
Second-year students of National Institute of Technology, Patna, have threatened to boycott classes after one of them was charged with ragging a junior.
The students have also allegedly threatened a teacher, who caught them in the act with “dire consequences” if charges against Gyanendra Kumar, the accused, were not dropped.
Ramesh Kumar, a teacher of electrical engineering department and chairman of the hostel management committee, caught Gyanendra, a second-year student of civil engineering department, allegedly harassing a first-year student on the institute premises on Thursday.
Ramesh said he would urge the NIT administration to take strong action against Gyanendra and his friends.
“Action should be taken against Gyanendra, as ragging is banned in the institute according to the Supreme Court directives,” Ramesh said.
“When I tried to stop the boy, he asked me not to interfere. On Friday, Gyanendra came to my chamber with 15 students and threatened me with dire consequences if the charges against him were not dropped,” Ramesh said.
The matter came to light when Ramesh found a first-year student standing silently, even as several students from the second-year surrounded him on Thursday.
“On reaching the spot, I understood that they were ragging the boy and were asking him to sing a song,” he said.
He added that he had referred the matter to the institute’s anti-ragging committee.
The students, however, claimed that nobody was ragged and Gyanendra was charged with an “ulterior motive”.
“The teacher (Ramesh) is trying to harass me. There was no incident of ragging on the premises,” Gyanendra said.
He added that if ragging charges were not dropped, he would boycott classes and claimed that he had the support of other students on the issue.
The NIT administration has constituted a committee headed by senior teacher S.M. Jha to resolve the issue.
“I am out of town but have come to know about the incident. I have ordered an inquiry into the case. The committee will separately talk to the teacher and the student and submit its reply in seven days,” NIT director Asok De told The Telegraph over phone.
The students were worried over the developments and hoped for an early solution to the impasse. They said such incidents tarnish the image of the institution.
“It is the time for campus placements and such incidents would affect us the most. This Wednesday, a company is all set to visit the institute to recruit students of our batch. If the ongoing issue is not resolved soon, we will be the worst-affected,” a final-year NIT student said, requesting anonymity.
He added that Gyanendra was a day scholar and had the backing of outsiders.
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