Kerala: Another ragging horror, school boy beaten, hand fractured for 'not respecting seniors'

The police told the media on Friday that five class 12 students allegedly assaulted the junior in the canteen of the higher secondary school in Kannur on February 12.

This incident comes in the wake of the arrest of five college students from a Kottayam nursing college, who allegedly tortured and poked the first-year students with compasses and dangled dumbells on their private parts. Besides extorting money from them to buy alcohol. The five senior college students have been arrested and are in judicial custody.

In this recent case in Kannur, a case has been registered for causing hurt and unlawful restraint against five students, all over the age of 18. Police are expected to invoke sections 3 and 4 of the Kerala Anti-Ragging Act, which deals with ragging within an educational institute, against the accused.

The students had allegedly cornered the junior and kicked him in the canteen, which caused a fracture on his hand and other serious injuries.

Meanwhile, the school principal has suspended the students and told the media that the anti-ragging committee has reviewed the CCTV footage at the school and will submit the report to the police.

The ragging incidents got a political flavour as Congress legislator and Opposition leader V D Satheesan claimed the accused nursing college students in the Kottayam case had links with the Student Federation of India, the student wing of the ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist). He blamed the SFI for the attack on students and said the CPI(M) is protecting them.