A student at a technology institute in Kerala has alleged that his seniors beat him for three hours on Wednesday, the Hindustan Times reported. The police have registered a ragging case against five students of the DC School of Management and Technology in Idukki based on complainant’s statement.

Athul Mohan, 23, has claimed that the five senior students forced him to leave the campus and assaulted him after discovering he had lied about his attempts to escape after being ragged when he first joined the college on June 22.

“They asked me to hold a rod and a cellphone in one hand,” Mohan told NDTV. “Then they whacked me with sticks on that hand, threatening that neither the phone, nor the rod should fall. When the phone fell, the beating started in earnest.”

Principal Dr Shankar Rajeev told NDTV that Mohan has withdrawn his complaint. “He [Mohan] admitted it was an error of judgement on his part,” Rajeev claimed.

Mohan, however, claimed that the institute ordered an internal inquiry only after he filed the police complaint. “We have paid money to study, not to be ragged,” another student told the news channel. “We have complained to the anti-ragging cell. We are being pressured to withdraw the complaint, but we will not do so.”

Ragging ban

Although ragging is banned in most educational institutions, India is yet to put in place a national anti-ragging law that defines ragging and the punishment it entails. The Supreme Court has set out a few guidelines, asking college authorities to guard the place where new students are accommodated and ban the entry of seniors and outsiders after a specified hour, according to ANI.

In December, a government medical college in Kerala’s Manjeri town suspended 21 students for allegedly ragging their juniors. The college authorities formed a three-member committee to investigate the allegations.