MBBS student alleges ragging on UGC helpline

Surat: Anti Ragging Cell (ARC) set up by the University Grants Commission received an anonymous complaint of alleged ragging by a first year MBBS student of a government medical college.
The college’s anti ragging committee probed into the complaint on Wednesday and found that no student was ragged and some student must have filed the online complaint for fear of possible harassment.
ARC received the complaint on mail and the college was sent details of the allegations levelled by the student. The college authorities treated it as an anonymous complaint and top officials questioned a few students privately. However, no one has come forward with any complaint so far.
The complaint was filed on February 15 and a meeting of the college's anti ragging committee was held on Wednesday. An inquiry was done by dean Dr Jayesh Brahmbhatt and other officials of GMC but found no no student of being harassed.
In the complaint the first year MBBS student alleged that, “I was asked to come to the playground on the GMC campus at Majura Gate after college hours. I did not go as the seniors were making junionrs clean and level the ground and work like labourers. The students were being asked to carry soil in buckets. The ground is being prepared for some event."
The student, who requested the ARC not to identify him, further alleged that, "Those who did not go to work in the ground were identified by the seniors who kept a watch at the entry of the hostel and then forcibly took the absent students to the ground and made them work till 2 am. Those who did not cooperate were again called to work at 7 am in the morning."
The complainant named two seniors and alleged that they are involved in harassing the students and also submitted screenshots of the text message on WhatsApp in which the first year students were asked to come to the sports ground.
"The WhatsApp messages that were submitted as evidence were sent by first year students to their batchmates and not by seniors. When checked it was a general call for all those who wish to participate in preparations for the sports events," said Jayesh Brahmbhatt, dean, GMC.
"When I checked, no first year student confirmed harassment even in private. Further, the anonymous complainant is not claiming that he has been harassed but is claiming of noticing harassment of others. The committee found that it was a more a complaint out of panic by some student," said Brahmbhatt.
"I was part of the meeting and based on the discussion over findings it seems that the incident is not of nature of ragging. No one confirmed of harassment and it is a group activity," said a police officer of Khatodara police station.