Meghalaya: Student from Nagaland trailed to Ragging at NEHU Tura Campus; union calls for strikes and boycotts

Digital Desk: The North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU) campus in Tura, Meghalaya, has seen a terrible case of ragging come to light where a student from Nagaland is reported to have succumbed to abuse by seniors.

The ragging was also communal in nature, according to the earliest accounts. The event allegedly occurred on October 8 at about 1:30 in the morning. The victim, a student at NEHU's Agri-Business Management department, had arrived on campus for the first time.

Seniors who knocked on his door and then brought him to an unoccupied room at the hostel while he was a guest at the Arabella Boys' Hostel subjected him to cruel harassment and abuse.

According to startling details that have emerged since the event, the seniors shined lights at his face so that they could not be identified. They told him to introduce himself in Hindi, and when he didn't, they told him to "entertain" everyone by performing a "naked dance" because he was a Naga. Only their fluent Hindi allowed the victim to identify the harassers.

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The victim was then threatened into stripping in front of them after his pleadings were ignored. He claimed that the offenders may have recorded a video of the incident on their phones while recounting the atrocities. When he couldn't bear the agony any longer and broke down in front of them, the superiors warned him of terrible consequences.

The victim of the horrific ragging episode left the dormitory campus the next morning and returned to Nagaland, where he filed an official complaint about the occurrence. 

Following this, the Naga Students' Union (NSU) in Shillong wrote to NEHU Vice Chancellor Prof Prabha Shankar Shukla, requesting that he take prompt action and ensure justice for the victim within 24 hours.

In addition, NSU stated, "The concerned authority should take legal action and file an FIR, facilitate the victim student's transfer to another central university of the same course, implement stringent disciplinary actions against the perpetrators in accordance with the university's anti-ragging policies and relevant laws, expel perpetrators from the university, transparent communication from the university, and that NEHU should align with the UGC's regulations on curbing ragging."

Chiran Shimrah, president of the student body, stated, "Such an undisciplined and heinous incident has brought great shame to the student's community and should never be encouraged elsewhere."

He further stated that if the institution does not take action, the union will call for strikes and boycotts against NEHU.