India's Ragging Menace: Horror Stories From Across Campuses

Despite strict anti-ragging rules, the problem still haunts Indian universities. HT takes a look at five prominent cases across the country over the last 2 years, some of which resulted in the deaths of junior students

- MAULIK PATHAK

15 years after Aman Kachroo, history repeats at Himachal varsity

On the night of March 6, 2009, Aman Kachroo and several other first-year medical students at the Rajendra Prasad Medical College in Tanda, Himachal Pradesh, were summoned to the seniors' hostel. Four drunk senior students—Ajay Verma, Naveen Verma, Mukul Sharma, all from the second year and Abhinav Verma who was doing his internship in the college at that time—began what started as verbal humiliation but quickly escalated to physical violence. The seniors repeatedly slapped Aman, bashed his head against the wall, and struck him with such force that his ears began bleeding. Despite his pleas for mercy and visible injuries, the assault continued through the night.

The next morning, his condition deteriorated rapidly as he began vomiting and showing signs of neurological damage. Medical examinations revealed severe internal head injuries and brain haemorrhage. The 19-year-old was pronounced dead on March 8, 2009. The post-mortem report confirmed that he died from traumatic brain injury resulting from multiple blunt force traumas to his head.

The grisly death sparked a wave of anger that swept the country, prompting the University Grants Commission to issue new anti-ragging guidelines and ordering the registration of FIRs in ragging cases. The four offending students were convicted of culpable homicide, sentenced to four years in jail, released after two years for good conduct, and later allowed to complete their degrees. For a while, it seemed that the menace was being brought under control.

But on June 5 last year, the illusion cracked. Two students from the 2019 batch were found guilty of injuring, harassing and bullying a junior.