Ten MSU girls found guilty of ragging, asked to vacate hostel

Vadodara, Oct 1 (UNI) The authorities of the M S University of Baroda have ordered 10 senior Fine Arts girl students to immediately vacate the univerity hostel after they were found guilty of obscene ragging charges, levelled against them by their juniors.

While the 10 girls directively involved in the ragging were fined Rs 1,000 each besides being asked to vacate their Sarojini Devi Girls' Hostel in the university campus by Monday, 28 other girls, present at the ragging, were too issued warning and fined Rs 500 each for not reporting the incident to the authorities.

MSU pro-vice-chancellor S M Joshi told UNI today that the university had taken the action against the erring girls on the basis of the recommendation of its special committee set up to investigate the complaints of ragging lodged by the 15 junior girl students of the faculty, who were the victims of the ragging.

Following a hue and cry in the university over the incident, the authorities who earlier denied such reports, had sacked the hostel superintendent Lopa Patel and transferred chief warden Dr S K Joshi to another department. They have also set up a committee to probe the allegation.

The ragging and sexual harassment of the junior girls were reportedly taken place on the night of August 25 in one of the S D Girls' Hostel rooms during the birthday celebration of an hostel inmate.

A couple of days after the incident, some of the victims came forward and made a written complaint to vice-chancellor Dr Manoj Soni, in which they described the sexual harassment that they had undergone that night.

Criticising the authorities for allegedly trying to hush up the matter because of pressure from different quarters, the victims had recently threatened to release a video recording of their statements made before the ragging committee.

Pro vice-chancellor S M Joshi said before issuing removal orders to the erring girls yesterday, their parents were duly informed. The girls were instructed to prevent recurrence of such incidents in the university campus in future, he added.

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