Howrah student attempts suicide after ragging

Updated on: Friday, September 11, 2009

Kolkata: A first-year student of a private technology institute in Howrah tried to commit suicide on Wednesday after he was beaten, tortured and forced to do drugs by his seniors. During the 90-minute ordeal, Nayan Adak’s wrists were slashed with razors and he was injected with air.

Unable to take the humiliation or face his tormentors in college, 19-year-old Nayan gulped poison in his home in Tamluk’s Arinan village. The only son of a farmer and a starmark student, Nayan is now hovering between life and death. The boy’s uncle, Subal Chandra Adak, has lodged an FIR with Uluberia police.

The Howrah incident comes just days after a ragging complaint rocked Jadavpur University. Nayan had joined Calcutta Institute of Pharmaceutical Technology & Allied Health Sciences in Uluberia in August for a B Pharm course. Seniors started picking on him from the first day and the ragging continued relentlessly for one and a half months, says his family.

On Friday, Nayan was waiting at Uluberia station to catch a train home when four seniors grabbed him and took him to a house in the locality, says his uncle. Once inside, the door was barred and the torture began. Nayan was beaten and forced to smoke a cigarette. Then an unknown drug was forced down his throat. When he lay delirious, his wrists were slashed with a razor. Then, one of the seniors asked another to fetch an empty syringe, the FIR says. As Nayan desperately struggled, he was held down and air injected into his left hand.

Battered and dazed, Nayan was dragged back to the station, warned against saying anything, and dumped.

At home, he kept the wounds hidden at first, saying he had tripped while playing. The next three days were holidays, but all the while Nayan was unusually quiet, says his family. “We now realise he was tormented from within,” his uncle said.

On Tuesday morning, after his father left for the fields, Nayan tried to commit suicide by drinking poison. His groans alerted his family members. Gasping for breath, he asked his family for forgiveness and narrated the ordeal, thinking it was the last time he would be seeing them.

Nayan was rushed to Tamluk district hospital and referred to SSKM in Kolkata. On his way to the city, his condition worsened and he had to be admitted to a nursing home at Alampur, Howrah. “He is in severe trauma and his left hand is peculiarly swollen,” said Buddhadeb Das, superintendent of the nursing home.

Samir Kumar Samanta, a member of the college’s antiragging committee, said they were inquiring into the case. Head of the department Manas Chakraborty has assured strict action against the guilty. Howrah SP Hari Kishore Kusumakar said police were waiting for Nayan to recover to take his statement.

Howrah student attempts suicide after ragging

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