First-year student Manas Kumar Samantray at the SCB Medical College and Hospital. Telegraph picture

Cuttack, March 6: Ravenshaw University is in the midst of a fresh controversy following allegations of ragging in which a first-year commerce student had sustained injuries. The incident took place yesterday in the East Hostel of the university.

Sources said that Manas Kumar Samantray (22) had been attacked by a group of final-year students in the hostel at around 8:30pm yesterday. An FIR was filed in the Malgodown police station.

“Around 15 final-year students entered our room and asked us to sign on a blank paper. They beat us badly after we had refused to follow their order,” said Samantray, who hails from Badamba area. He had joined the university in July last year.

Apart from Samantray, another first-year student, Malaya Ranjan Das, was also allegedly beaten up by the seniors. “This has become a regular affair at the hostel. The seniors keep harassing us and even collect money from us in the name of welfare activities,” said Das.

“We have registered a case under Sections 341, 323, 294, 384, 506 34/3 of the SC/ST Act and further probe is on,” police said. According to the FIR, five final-year students — Saubhagya Swain, Ganeswar Pradhan, Pratap Mohanty, Sambit Tripathy and Subhranshu Sethi — allegedly misbehaved and attacked the first-year students.

The final-year students, however, refuted the allegations. “The allegations are baseless. We have not beaten up anybody. The students, who have brought these allegations, are indulging in all kinds of illegal activities in the hostel. We had asked them to vacate the hostel if they continued with these activities. We had also asked them to come for a meeting on March 3, but they did not turn up,” said Pratap Mohanty, a final-year student.

The final-year students alleged that the charges were a conspiracy by the university authorities to divert attention from the East Hostel dispute. A verdict on the dispute is expected soon.

“We had asked all students to sign a memorandum highlighting problems of the hostel. We have planned to send this to the human rights commission as our hostel lacks several facilities even at a time when the examinations are approaching,” said Mohanty. He also denied allegations of extortion of money and said that students had been asked to contribute only for cleaning of the bathrooms and lawns and making payments to the sweepers.

“We have asked hostel warden Bijay Mishra to conduct an inquiry into the incident. The anti-ragging committee will take appropriate action after the warden submits his report by Monday,” said university registrar Smarapriya Mishra.

A few months ago, the university was in the thick of a controversy when an Afghan student was injured in a scuffle with the local students. Later, more than 50 Afghans studying in the university left Cuttack fearing more attacks. The state officials had to persuade the students to bring them back to the university.