The menace of ragging continues to haunt students in some institutions in Telugu states as in the latest case in Andhra Pradesh, 18 students of JNTU Anantapur have been suspended for ragging juniors.

The College Academic Council of Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University (JNTU) suspended students of Anantapur Engineering College for forcibly taking some freshers to their hostel. The juniors were allegedly forced to stand half-naked and follow orders of the seniors.

The incident took place on Friday night but came to light a day later. The college authorities learnt about ragging when a parent of one of the first-year students complained.

The college authorities came to know that some first-year students were taken to Gurukula Hostel, the hostel of seniors. When questioned by the college principal, the freshers revealed how they were ragged by the seniors.

Taking a serious note of the incident, the College Academic Council suspended 18 students of the second year found involved in the ragging from academics and hostel. The Council began a detailed inquiry on Monday to ascertain facts from the victims and other students for further action.

Police also took suo-moto note of the ragging incident and began a probe. According to Anantapur Superintendent of Police Fakkerappa Kaginelli, the police have not received any complaint but they took suo-moto cognizance and deputed a DSP-rank officer to probe the incident.

This is the second incident of ragging in the government-run institutions in the Telugu states in the last one month. Six students of a government medical college in Telangana’s Suryapet were suspended for one year for ragging a junior student last month.

Second year MBBS students of the Government Medical College Suryapet were punished after they were found involved. They were also arrested by the police under the Anti-Ragging Act.

The police rescued the junior student Sai Kumar after receiving a call that some senior students were ragging him in the Boys hostel of the college.

The complainant alleged that a group of students came to his room, ordered him to take off his clothes and took video shots of him in their mobile phones. They also tried to cut his hair. The victim said he was physically and mentally tortured for two hours. He later managed to escape from them and called up his father after hiding in another room.