A Keralite student studying business management at an institute in Karnataka was on Sunday admitted to the district hospital, Mananthavadi, with serious burns after an incident of alleged ragging.
Muhammed Rafi, 19, son of Ashraf of Nechana at Vellamunda, was admitted to the hospital with burns on his right ear and neck. Muhammed is a first-year BBA student at the Sri Siddhartha Institute of Business Management at Maralur, near Tumkur. The boy’s relatives alleged that a few senior students manhandled him on Saturday for failing to attend a function organised by them. They said the boy was assaulted by a Malayali final-year BBA student of the college along with some outsiders. The Mananthavadi police reported the incident to the Tumkur police station following a complaint registered by his parents.
Friends’ version
Tumkur Staff Correspondent reports:
Two of Muhammed’s friends at the college, who requested anonymity, said Akhilesh, a 6th semester BBM student in the same college, along with his friend Rajin Lal, had come to Muhammed’s house in Amarajyothi Nagar in Tumkur city on Saturday.
They said Akhilesh, who had opened a centre, smartindia.in, in Tumkur, was angry that Muhammed did not attend the inauguration on January 18.
Akhilesh came to Muhammed’s house on Saturday. Following an argument, Akhilesh slapped him, and Rajin caught hold of his neck. When Muhammed tried to escape he fell on a vessel in which water was being boiled on the stove, his friends said.
Akhilesh immediately took Muhammed to a hospital where he was treated.
Since Muhammed was scared after the incident, his friends told him to go home, and he left on Saturday evening. Akhilesh and Rajin are from Kozhikode in Kerala. Rajin is doing a diploma course in Shridevi College in Tumkur.
No complaint
Ravikumar N.S., Principal of Sri Siddhartha Institute of Business Management, expressed doubts whether Muhammed had been ragged. The student had not met him, he said, adding that Muhammed was not staying in the college hostel.
The Tumkur Rural police said they had not received any complaint of ragging.
