The ragging incident at Nalanda Medical College (NMC) took a U-turn with the first-year MBBS student, who had accused seven second-year students of the institute of ragging, refusing to recognise his alleged tormentors when his seniors turned up at the anti-ragging cell meet on Tuesday.

The first-year student had claimed that the second-year students not only ragged him but also cut his hair forcefully.

Instead of reporting the matter to the college's anti-ragging cell, the student had reported it to the Medical Council of India (MCI) on Friday through a mail after which the MCI sent a letter to the NMC on Sunday to conduct a probe into the incident at the earliest and lodge an FIR against the accused students in the police station concerned if the allegations were found to be true.

Sources said though the first-year student refused to recognise his alleged tormentors, he did not take back his ragging allegations during the anti-ragging cell meet.

The cell had its first meeting on the issue on Monday in which the first-year student had submitted a written complaint in which he named the seven accused who were said to be involved in the ragging.

Earlier, in a letter to the MCI, the student had stated that only one second-year student was involved in the ragging.

"On Tuesday, the seven second-year students against whom ragging charges have been slapped turned up at the cell to record their statements. They denied their involvement in the incident. However, the student who levelled charges against the second-year students, was also present in the meeting and when the second-year students were being called to record their statements, the first-year student refused to recognise them. This is shocking because the student had mentioned the names of the seven students in his complaint letter which he had submitted to the cell on Monday," said a member of the anti-ragging cell.

On what will be the next step of the cell, now that the "victim" has refused to recognise his alleged tormentors, the anti-ragging cell member said: "The first-year student on Tuesday submitted another letter in which he stated there had been a mistake on his part and he could not identify the tormentors and gave wrong names to the anti-ragging cell because of emotional trauma. On the other hand, the seven second-year students have also submitted a letter denying their involvement in the matter. We will now submit the letters received from both sides to the MCI and the cell will also recommend the apex body from its side that the case be closed because the student could not recognise any of his alleged tormentors when they were called for identification. The MCI has to take a final call on the basis of our report."

Another anti-ragging cell member said there was a possibility that the second-year students were mounting pressure on the "victim" to change his statement.

"It is obvious. Otherwise how can it be possible that he gave the names of his tormentors to the cell and then refused to recognise them," said the member.

A senior college official said that the anti-ragging cell is not going to stretch the issue further because the victim has refused to recognise the harassers. "The case doesn't stand at all," he said.