CEPT to close down for two weeks

CEPT dean R.M. Vakil said, “It’s a matter of great shock. We don’t know why it happened.” He said that though ragging was part of the initiation process at CEPT campus he had asked students that they should not indulge in anything which is not acceptable to any individual student and he was happy to say that the students council had accepted his directive.

Vakil accepted that ragging goes on for upto two weeks when fresh students are admitted but he claimed that no ragging takes place on campus. He said that they had an elaborate system of escorting fresh students out of campus for the first two weeks to prevent ragging.

Dr Bharat Amin, parent of a student who left the school because of intense ragging last year, said that ragging takes place for over a month at CEPT and senior students indulge in various things like bathing freshers with rotten eggs and asking vegetarians to eat raw eggs, asking girls to wear minis and sleeveless dresses. He added that they also physically abuse the girls and ask then to run around the campus and make them swab the floors with their dupattas and such other things. Dr Amin said that last year he along with two other parents who also withdrew their girls from the School of Interior Design had met Director Krishna Shastri and asked her to intervene and stop the ragging but no action was taken and they were forced to withdraw their children from the college.

Students of CEPT continued to maintain silence and refused to answer questions about ragging in the campus. The Director of School of Architecture K Varkey, who was visibly upset with the incidence on Monday said, “Though our students are different from the rest of the student community here, don’t they have a right to live like they want and why should anyone question their lifestyles?”

He assured that no immoral activities are going on in the campus though students remained on campus late in the evening for assignments. Vakil felt that they were being victimised because they were a institute of excellence.

On Monday, during the mob frenzy more than 50 students were beaten up and over half a dozen sustained grievous injuries. One student had to be hospitalised with a serious stomach injury. He was lying in the campus bleeding for over 20 minutes before he could be taken to the hospital when the mob left. The Director of School of Interior Design Krishna Shastri who was kicked in the stomach when she tried to stop the attackers had to run for her life and hide in the office to save herself.

In a press release, CEPT authorities have stated that there was no ragging on the campus on July 20 and fresh students were only introduced after registration. Vakil said that the three students who were allegedly kidnapped returned unharmed. He said that the students told him that they were taken by a few people in a car to a ground where they were being beaten up but another group appeared and saved them. The three returned on their own unharmed. But another reliable source claimed that the three students went to a doctor and returned after being treated.

The registrar, Col J M Desai, has asked for protection from the police on the campus and at the hostels. This is not the first time that the college has had problems they have even had problems while conducting rock shows, jam sessions and Navratri garbas but this is the first time that violence was witnessed on the campus.

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