The Madras High Court recently quashed criminal proceedings against seven students of Coimbatore's PSG College of Technology who were accused of physically assaulting a junior student and tonsuring his head in an incident of ragging.While Justice N Anand Venkatesh quashed the proceedings after it was told that the accused students and the victim had arrived at a settlement, the judge expressed great dismay over the entire incident and told the accused students to keep in mind that ragging was an “inhuman” act and that one must not derive any pleasure in another person’s miseries.“What is the purpose of going to college if you will indulge in abhorrent acts such as ragging? It is better to remain illiterate and uneducated than indulging in such acts. Ragging is an inhuman thing. If a person is deriving pleasure by subjecting another human being to torture, it means he is suffering from mental illness,” the judge told the accused-students who were present in Court on February 22, Thursday.In November 2023, the Coimbatore police had registered a criminal case against the accused, all students of engineering, for allegedly having assaulted a junior student from their college, after the latter refused to give them money for liquor.As per the police, the accused had beaten the victim, tonsured his head with a trimmer and locked him in a room overnight.On Thursday, the victim-student, who was also present in the Court along with his father, told Justice Venkatesh that the accused had apologised for their actions. He said that he did not wish to go ahead with the case any further.The Court accordingly ordered that the pending criminal proceedings in the case be quashed.
TAGS: Madras High Court criminal proceedings PSG College of Technology ragging settlement Justice N Anand Venkatesh
