Pankaj Kumar Picture by Gopi Raman

Muzaffarpur, Oct. 20: Unable to endure alleged ragging by his seniors for the past week, first-year student of Muzaffarpur Institute of Technology (MIT) Pankaj Kumar fled to his home in Munger last night.

Pankaj had enrolled himself in the information technology department of MIT last Thursday. Exactly a week after, he is back home in Munger, shaken after being ragged by his seniors. But before leaving Muzaffarpur, he lodged an FIR against five seniors at the college — Rohit, Sanjay Kumar, Rakesh Kumar Anil Kumar and Raj Kumar — at Barhampura police station. Contacted by The Telegraph, MIT principal Dhuruv Prasad feigned ignorance of the ragging episode and said Pankaj, who belongs to the Dalit community, had left the institute for his personal reasons.

Deputy superintendent of police (town) Baccha Singh said Pankaj, a resident of Munger district, had taken admission at MIT on October 13 following his selection in the Bihar State Combined Engineering Examination, 2011. Last night, accompanied by father Nand Kishore Choudhary, Pankaj visited the Barhampura police station to lodge FIR against the five engineering students who allegedly tortured him during ragging. Later, he took a train with his father and returned to his home in Munger.

According to the FIR lodged with Barhampura police, Pankaj was forced to strip and was also asked to stand on one leg for two hours at a stretch.

Pankaj, despite his strong reservations, was forced to drink alcohol and sing vulgar songs. Whenever, he would delay singing, the seniors would slap and abuse him, said Pankaj in his FIR. He added that the seniors also passed vulgar and rude comments if he would look sideways during one of their dictates.

The DSP also said Pankaj had approached the MIT principal to complain against the senior engineering students but to no avail. The principal hardly heard his cries and preferred to keep mum.

MIT principal Prasad, however, dismissed the allegations of ragging levelled by Pankaj. He claimed Pankaj, who enrolled in the information technology department of MIT, was unable to cope with the study material and left the course expressing helplessness. He decided to pursue competitive banking examinations instead, claimed Prasad.

Singh said: “The police have instituted an FIR under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act against five students of MIT for torturing and assaulting Pankaj during ragging.” He added that the police would tighten the noose around the students who are part of ragging at the college.

The station house officer of Barhampura police station, Sunil Kumar, said: “The police have taken a serious note of the charges levelled against the senior students of MIT by a first-year Dalit student Pankaj Kumar. Drastic action will be initiated against the accused named in the FIR. The MIT administration has also come under cloud the victim’s startling revelation about the ragging on the campus.”