Taking a firm stand against ragging, the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) has imposed a penalty of Rs.50,000 against 10 students indulged in ragging. The authorities have also handed over these guilty students to the police, who registered a criminal case against them for allegedly ragging junior students.

The university officials said that out of 10 students, eight are B-Tech third year students, while remaining two are third year students. The college authorities also have videos and other substantial proofs to attest the ragging of junior students.

However, the arrested students expressed innocence about the whole ragging episode, and said that their implication in the case is a conspiracy plotted by their juniors. One of the accused, Digvijay Singh, said: “We only know this much that we are innocent. We were playing cricket with our juniors for the past three-four days. We were introduced to them in our department and we have mingled with them.”

The university has already setup a committee to deal with cases pertaining to ragging. The Supreme Court, in its recent ruling, has directed educational institutes to adopt zero tolerance against ragging, failing which the ‘recognition’ of the institutes could be in jeopardy.