Bhubaneswar: A Plus 2 girl student was allegedly ragged and mentally tortured by her roommates at the Rama Devi Women’s College hostel here in the city.
The matter came to the fore after the victim wrote to the School & Mass Education Department requesting justice.
As per the allegation, Swayam Smpanna Mallick, a Plus 2 first-year Arts student of the RD Women’s Higher Secondary School in Bhubaneswar, was tortured mentally by her roommates just two to three days after she started staying at a ladies’ hostel on the premises of the educational institution following her admission for this academic session.
The student, who is a dalit by caste from Mayurbhanj district, alleged that she was subjected to ragging by her three roommates since September 14, 2023.
She alleged that she had brought the matter to the notice of the college authorities including the hostel superintendent and principal following which the anti-ragging cell of the college recorded my statement, but nothing happened.
“As the three were the student had English medium schooling background, they used to criticise me for passing out from an Odia medium school. They used to threaten me and hurling sexist remarks as I am a Scheduled Caste student. They used to restrict me from studying during night hours while they were on busy with their boyfriends on mobile phones. Even they used to force me to wear short clothes at night. They were keeping their shoes on a rack allotted to me. They forced me to separate my bed and barred me from having food together inside the room. I was restricted to inform this to my parents too,” the complaint made with the enquiry committee members of Anti-ragging cell of RD Women’s Junior College revealed.
As no action was taken against the accused students by the enquiry committee, the victim approached the SME Department for justice. Acting on the complaint, the Department directed the Higher Secondary Education Director to probe the allegation and furnish a factual report at the earliest.
