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A video showing some students kicking and beating up their juniors at an engineering institute in Andhra Pradesh has sent shock-waves even as the college authorities on Thursday said the footage was not related to 'ragging'.
The National Institute of Technology at Warangal found itself in a tight spot after the the video surfaced. A Telugu news channel had on Wednesday aired the video clipping, alleging that some junior students were 'ragged' with seniors hitting them on their back and forcing one of them to strip.
However, NIT Director T Srinivas Rao maintained that the incident was not ragging but actually related to birthday celebrations on the campus. "These video clippings pertain to the incident of birthday bumps reported in February-March this year wherein action has already been initiated against the students involved. Parents were also informed about the incident and the final year engineering students, who were involved in the act, were warned about their conduct," Rao told PTI by phone.
However, a Committee of Inquiry (comprising NIT officials) has been constituted to ascertain whether the video footage shown on the TV channel was old or new. No police complaint has been lodged in this regard, Rao said.
The NIT director felt some anti-social elements were trying to destabilise the institute and bring disrepute to it. Meanwhile, around 40 activists of some student organisations were taken into custody by police after they stormed into the Administrative Block of the NIT and allegedly tried to manhandle Rao and ransack the premises protesting against what they called failure of NIT authorities in not controlling ragging incidents.