New Delhi, Aug 19 (IANS) The Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) here Wednesday rusticated nine students for two years and expelled 10 others from the hostel for a year for ragging their juniors.
“We have completed the investigation. We have rusticated nine students of the Masters of Computer Application (MCA) programme for four semesters,” JNU chief spokesperson Poonam Kudaisya told IANS.

According to the office of the chief proctor, 10 students were also expelled from the hostel for a year for ragging.

“We in JNU are against ragging and won’t tolerate it. The punishment was given to tell (students) that such criminal activities cannot be tolerated,” a senior administrator said.

“All the 19 students are pursuing MCA,” he added.

In a “shocking and first of its kind incident”, at least eight JNU students were ragged by their seniors in a hostel room Aug 12. After an inquiry into the incident, 15 more students were sent show cause notices as juniors complained of ragging during this academic session.

The victims were MCA students who were ragged by students of third and fourth semesters. On Aug 12, the anti-ragging committee got a tip-off about ragging and conducted a raid. The team caught the accused red-handed in Sabarmati hostel.

Similarly, on Aug 3, the Kirori Mal College (KMC) in Delhi University’s north campus expelled two students and rusticated another for allegedly ragging a junior in the hostel. Delhi Police have registered a case against two students.

The KMC authorities received a complaint from a first-year B.Sc. student, Ashutosh, that he was ragged by two third-year students - Akshay Chaudhary and Hani Mohammad - in the college hostel the day before.

The Supreme Court has asked educational institutions to observe zero tolerance towards ragging. During the past year, India witnessed 88 cases of ragging, of which 12 proved fatal.