Patna: Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences medical college principal Dr Ranjit Guha on Friday said that be it the molestation episode outside the Dhanwantari hostel on the campus or the ragging of junior MBBS students by their senior students, the situation got out of control due to involvement of "outsiders".
The IGIMS administration ordered sine dine closure of the medical college and hostel on Thursday after tension on campus on Wednesday night. Guha said the situation was under control.
"A formal decision to revoke the sine die closure order is expected to be taken on Saturday and we are expecting students to be back in the campus on Monday," he said.
According to the students, a girl student of the 2017 batch was with a batch mate from another community outside Dhanwantari hostel around 8pm on Wednesday night when some outsiders entered the campus and misbehaved with them.
The male MBBS student posted about it on the college WhatsApp group, as a result of which seniors got to know about it and began lecturing the juniors.
They asked why there was no unity among juniors and why they had not jointly countered the outsiders.
The seniors also allegedly ragged the juniors, asking some to get on their knees and others to open their pants. Some juniors defied, after which there was a clash between seniors and juniors. All this took place late at night.
Principal Guha said that the root of the problem was outsiders who belong to the Samanpura area.
"It has happened previously also when outsiders intruded into the campus and misbehaved with students. In Wednesday's incident also, some outsiders who were on a bike hurled slurs on a girl student and manhandled a boy student who was accompanying her. Later, some outsiders also threw stones and broke windows of the college buildings. Some students received physical injuries during the episode," Guha said.
"Actually some students who are staying in the college hostel have good rapport with the outsiders," he added. "However, sometimes when the students' relation became sour with the outsiders, these kind of incidents happen. On Wednesday night itself, we received ragging complaints from junior MBBS students who said they were locked inside a room and ragged by seniors. We have come to know that outsiders were also involved in this ragging episode."
The anti-ragging committee of the college has taken up the matter and an inquiry report would be submitted soon.
"In case someone is proven guilty of ragging, they would be suspended. Ragging is prohibited as per Medical Council of India rules," Guha added.
Wednesday's incident has also exposed the chinks in the medical college's security as outsiders not only were able to enter the campus but they molested a girl student and fled.
Asked about it, Guha said that the medical college's security system would be strengthened soon.
"The present agency which is providing security personnel to medical college and hospital buildings have not been able to provide adequate manpower and trained personnel," he said.
"The IGIMS administration has now floated a tender to select a new security agency. We have categorically defined how many armed personnel and how many martial arts-trained personnel (are needed) and where they should be posted be it in the girls' hostel or boys' hostel, everything has been specified. The tender is supposed to be finalised within 10 days and we would get new security agency to look after security in the campus."
