A woman police constable posed as a student at the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College in Indore district to crack a ragging case in July this year.
After spending about a month as a student of the college, the undercover constable, Shalini Chouhan, cracked the case with the arrest of 11 accused students.
Sanyogita Ganj police station in-charge, Tehzeeb Qazi told ANI, “The victims were neither willing to reveal their names or those of the accused students. They had lodged a complaint on the Delhi UGC helpline after which the dean of the MGM college lodged a complaint and a case was registered. While an investigation was launched into the matter, the students (victims) weren’t willing to come forward and give their statements.”
“We asked the anti-ragging committee (of the college) to share the phone numbers of the complainants but they could not. I then formed a team of four police personel, including Shalini, to probe the matter. They went undercover, posing as a nurse, student and employees of the college. They interacted with the students without disclosing their identities and eventually managed to identify the accused,” he said.
“We recorded the statements of some of the students and our undercover personnel kept gathering more information by listening in on chats and conversations between the senior and junior students at the college. Before long, all the accused students were identified. We have arrested 11 accused students, so far, in the case and if more names come up in the course of our investigation, they will face action as well,” Qazi added.
The undercover woman constable told ANI, “The victims were not coming forward to record their statements. So, the station in-charge sent me to the college in the garb of an MBBS student. For a month, I spent about five to six hours in the college daily, talking to the students. With time, I befriended them and started identifying the accused. The juniors weren’t willing to give away the names of their seniors involved in the ragging incident, out of fear. I took the names of two or three accused students from my side, after which the juniors took me into confidence and helped identify the accused. I sent word to my seniors after identifying the accused.”
“During the undercover operation, fellow personnel from our police station were deployed around our college to keep watch. It was the first undercover operation for me in eight years in the job. It was very challenging. Initially, I was a bit hesitant to pose as an MBBS student but my station in-charge, Tehzeeb Qazi, motivated me to go undercover and unmask the accused,” she added.
The Dean of Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College, Dr Sanjay Dixit, told ANI, “We had received a complaint of ragging from the UGC, after which we had lodged an FIR. Our Anti-Ragging Committee has suspended all the 11 students accused in the case from the college as well as the hostel for three months, during which time they will not be able to attend classes.” (ANI)
This report is filed by ANI news service. TheNewsMill holds no responsibility for this content.
