Fact-finding committee to record victim's statement in hospital

Earlier, the management had said action would not be initiated against the accused until the victim deposes before the committee in person. u00a0Unable to bear the trauma of being ragged, Supriya was hospitalised thrice in the last one month. This affected her attendance in the college and delayed the investigation. Supriya was last hospitalised on Sunday.u00a0

Citing Supriya's ill health, her father had requested the college authorities on September 7 to give his daughter some extra time before her statement was recorded.

"If the girl is not able to come to the college, then our fact-finding committee will go to the hospital, where she is currently admitted, to register her statement," MIT President Adv Bhaskar Avhad said yesterday.

"Keeping in mind her ill health, we will first consult her psychiatrist to see whether is it okay to question her about the incident or not. If permitted, we will record her statement in the presence of her doctor and decide the course of action against the accused."

Supriya's mother and brother said the parents of the three girls, accused of ragging Supriya, were pressurising them to withdraw their complaint.

"They know that I come to college on a regular basis. The moment I stepped outside the college, parents of the accused along with a political activist surrounded me and suggested that I withdraw the ragging complaint," Supriya's mother said yesterday.

"They said the incidents occurred outside the college campus, then why were we involving college in it. They also blamed us for unnecessarily involving their daughters and threatened that they would come to our residence to ‘solve' the matter in their own way."

The moment this correspondent approached the parents of the accused girls while they were busy conversing with Supriya's mother, they left the spot saying it was not a case of ragging and the matter can be settled. u00a0