How police constable went undercover as college student for three months to crack Indore Medical ragging case

New Delhi, Dec 13: It took nearly three months for 24-year-old police officer Shalini Chouhan, a new joinee, to crack a case of ragging reported at the government-run Mahatma Gandhi Memorial (MGM) medical college in Madhya Pradesh's Indore.

Just like any other student, Shalini, a commerce graduate, finetuned her role as a medical student and attended classes. Shalini spent hours with college students, spotted the students who would berate the first-year MBBS students for months and finally zeroed on 11 culprits.

How Shalini Chouhan cracked the case:

The ragging case at the College had been troubling the Madhya Pradesh Police for quite some time. The investigating officers had a hard time cracking this case. Earlier when they tried to crack the case by posing in their civilian dress inside the college, but the students were quick to identify them by their appearance and nothing conclusive came out of that operation. However, Shalini seemed to be the perfect fit for an undercover operation.

For Shalini, who hails from Bagli, Operation MGM was the first case. She was also quick to step into the role. Her seniors instructed her to get close with others students to encourage them to open up to her, and it seems to have worked out.

Shalini told the Times of India,''I used to spend five to six hours at the canteen every day at intervals so that it would seem like I was a student, and not just hanging around there all day, talking to all kinds of people. Slowly, with the help of my team, I could single out the seniors who were ragging freshers.''

A woman police official was sent to the college, where she posed as a medical student and was able to connect all the dots in the case successfully to nail the accused, an official told PTI. Another woman personnel was roped in to pose as a nurse and two constables were sent as canteen workers to the college to solve the case, he said.

A detailed investigation not only confirmed the crime, but also helped the police identify 11 students who were involved, the official said.

The ragging case

It was on July 24, 2022 a student of the college had filed a complaint with the University Grants Commission (UGC) helpline, following which the institute's administration filed a criminal case against unidentified students on July 24.

"The complaint on the UGC helpline had complete details about the ragging incident, but it did not mention the names of the accused and the complainant student. The complaint also carried screenshots of chats on a social media platform, but the number of students involved had not been revealed," Sanyogitaganj police station in-charge Tehzeeb Qazi told PTI.

As per the probe, the accused senior students had allegedly ragged their juniors by making them perform some obscene acts, he said.

Notices have been served to the accused under relevant provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) and they have been asked to cooperate in the investigations and appear in court when the chargesheet is submitted, the official said.

According to media reports, 11 students who have been served notices, 9 are from Madhya Pradesh, one each from Bihar and West Bengal.

After getting a list of the accused students, the college administration has suspended them for three months with immediate effect last week, he added.