Lucknow, July 29: A government-run infotech institute in Allahabad has slapped a fine of Rs 50,000 each on 19 girl students for harassing juniors in possibly the first big crackdown since the Supreme Court ordered specific anti-ragging steps two months ago.

The Indian Institute of Information Technology, Allahabad, also withdrew the scholarships that had been awarded to the accused students.

“The authorities have imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 each on the students, which they have to deposit by August 14,” an institute spokesperson said.

The move followed a May 8 order of the apex court, which told states to set up counselling and de-addiction centres in all educational institutes after a court-appointed panel blamed “rampant alcoholism” and drug abuse for the spurt in ragging cases.

The court guidelines followed the death of Aman Kachroo. The first-year student of a Himachal Pradesh medical college was thrashed by four drunken seniors and died of his injuries in March.

IIIT-A sources said on July 19 evening, the girls, all second-year BTech students, asked the juniors to crawl on the floor, address them as Madam and sing “vulgar” songs. The alleged ragging took place in the girls’ hostel on the institute campus.

“Our preliminary inquiries have found 19 students guilty of harassing newcomers in spite of regular warnings through mails, notices and personal instructions at the time of orientation,” IIIT-A warden Shveta Singh said.

One of the “guilty” students is believed to have defended themselves by saying that whatever they have been accused of was “done in jest and not meant to be taken seriously”. But some of the freshers reacted strongly and complained to the administration.

“We have set up a committee headed by the dean of the institute to probe the circumstances leading to the ragging to find out who others were behind the incident,” M.D Tiwari, director of the institute, told The Telegraph over the phone from Allahabad.

“We could have drawn up an FIR against the students and would have even rusticated the students but have taken a decision to wait till the committee submits its report.”

No boy has been named as an accused so far but the probe would also try to find out if any male student was involved in the ragging.

Tiwari said the definition of ragging had now become very strict. “Even asking a junior student to address seniors as ‘Sir’ is ragging,” he said.

“We have imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 although under the law, there is a provision to impose fines of up to Rs 2.5 lakh,” he added. “The Supreme Court has asked for exemplary punishment against those involved in ragging to send a message to other students. I hope our decision will do that.”

Earlier, in a May 2007 order, the court had made ragging a crime and tasked educational institutions with the responsibility of curbing it.