A first-year animation student at a private college in Noida has alleged three of his seniors assaulted him, threatened to kill him and make an MMS of the incident public if he did not cough up money. However, the Asian School of Graphics & Animation — a unit of Marwah Studios at Sector 16A — has denied the allegation.
The 20-year-old victim, who has been identified as Abhishek Singla, had joined the college in October 2013. Abhishek was allegedly ragged by his seniors Aahkash Suri, a resident of Jammu, Aayush, a resident of Jalandhar and Aakash Jaiswal, a resident of Gorakhpur on Tuesday night. They forcibly entered his room, beat him up mercilessly for several hours and recorded a clip of the incident. The seniors also threatened to kill him if he ratted them out to the institute management.
“On April 15, I was beaten up by my seniors at the hostel situated at B Block of Sector 46. They have beaten me before also but this time they slapped me over 400 times and even hit me with their slippers. While two of them were hitting me, one of the seniors recorded it on his mobile,” said Abhishek, who hails from Karnal in Haryana. “They also showed me a gun and threatened to kill me. They asked me to give Rs5,000 and said they would make this video public by uploading it on the Internet,” he said.
Abhishek claimed he informed the college management, which seized the mobile phone and found the MMS clip. An FIR was lodged at Sector 39 police station against the three final-year students for ragging and physical assault. On Friday morning, the victim approached police. “I had informed the hostel administration but no action was taken against the seniors. Even the administration forced me to maintain silence. In the meantime, the seniors had uploaded the video on the Internet. This is when I decided to approach the police.”
The college, however, denied it was a case of ragging and said it has taken appropriate action against the seniors seen in the video. Police have registered a case under Sections 323, 324 and 341 of IPC and conducted raids to nab the students involved. The institute management has also been asked that why an anti-ragging committee was not formed despite the Supreme Court’s directive.
“We have registered the FIR under appropriate Sections and are investigating the case. We also have the MMS clip and identified the students involved. We will soon arrest them and record their statements. The students are at large now but their families have been informed. Penal action will also be initiated against the institute if it is found not complying with the court’s order,” said Shivram Yadav, Circle Officer (CO) of Noida.