KOTTAYAM: Five senior students of the Govt nursing college here were arrested for subjecting first-year students to brutal ragging.
The arrested students, all in their third year of BSc Nursing are Samuel Johnson, 20, from Valakom in Kottayam district; Rahul Raj, 22, from Malappuram; Jeeva, 18, from Wayanad; Rijil Jith, 20, from Malappuram; and Vivek N V, 21, from Koruthode in Kottayam district.
The arrested students were remanded in judicial custody on Wednesday evening and shifted to the district jail.
They were arrested by a team led by Gandhinagar SHO T Sreejith.
The accused have been booked under BNS sections 118(1) for voluntarily causing hurt using dangerous weapons or harmful means, 308(2) for extortion, 351(1) for criminal intimidation and sections 3 and 4 of the Kerala Prohibition of Ragging Act, 1998.
The victims, identified as Libin, Ajith, Dileep, Adarsh, Arun, and Amal, endured severe ragging.
Investigating officer Pradeep Lal V, sub-inspector of Gandhi Nagar Police Station, stated that college authorities informed the police, who registered a case after recording statements from the victims.
"The victim students informed the college's anti-ragging committee, which investigated the complaint. After confirming its authenticity, the committee alerted the police. We then recorded statements from some victims, based on which the case was filed," he said.
After suffering nearly three months of cruel ragging, three first-year students finally filed a complaint. Police reports state that the accused stripped the victims naked, hung dumbbells from their private parts and used a geometry box divider to inflict wounds.
The victims were tied to cots in their hostel rooms and lotion was poured over their wounds.
The accused also rubbed cream on their mouths and other body parts, forced them to stand naked while dumbbells were hung from their private parts and threatened them with a knife to extort money for alcohol.
The complaint also alleges that the senior students regularly took money from juniors on Sundays to buy liquor and that some of these acts were recorded on mobile phones. Police have seized these visuals from the accused students' devices.
Lini Joseph, principal-in-charge of the college, confirmed that all five accused students were suspended. "The students were suspended following an internal probe conducted by senior professors of the college," she said. "A report on the incident has been submitted to the head of the Kerala University of Health Sciences and the district police chief."
'Poured lotion, injured student using divider'
On November 16, the accused allegedly coerced a first-year student into transferring Rs 300 via Google Pay and handing over Rs 500 in cash under threats.
According to the police, the money was used to buy alcohol.
On December 13, a first-year student was subjected to severe physical torture. That night, the accused reportedly entered his room, tied his hands and legs, and restrained him.
They then poured lotion over his body and injured him using a divider. Another first-year student in the room was forced to record the incident on a mobile phone.
College authorities stated that the victims had not informed hostel officials, teachers, or parents about the harassment.