EIGHT STUDENTS of a residential school in Chhattisgarh's Kabirdham district were booked and one of them arrested after it emerged that they ragged their juniors – abusing and assaulting them and chopping off their hair with scissors – last week. The March 11 incident came to light on Wednesday, officials said, after a couple of videos emerged on social media in which the students are seen slapping and assaulting the juniors, all aged between 12 and 13 years. One of the videos shows the seniors chopping the hair of two students. According to officials at least five students were ragged in the incident. After the incident came to light, Kabirdham Collector Janmejay Mahobe ordered a probe into the incident. The superintendent of the residential school was shunted out and a showcause notice has been served to the school principal. “Seven of the eight accused are minors. One of them is a 18-year-old. He was arrested and produced before a court that sent him to judicial custody,” said a police official. An FIR has been registered under IPC Sections 294 (obscenity in public), 342 (wrongful confinement), 323 (causing hurt) and 506 (criminal intimidation) and Section 4 (punishment for ragging) of the Prohibition of Ragging Act, 2011.
