Who killed Aman Kachroo?

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By: Satyakam Bharti

Has everything been said by the all-knowing media and done by the ever-effusive politicians following the death – better to call it murder – of Aman Kachroo, a first year student at Dr Rajinder Prashad Medical College in Tanda, who fell victim to ragging? Perhaps yes, because the media cannot stick to a story for too long, and the political class too seems to have shed their crcodile tears. So who should be tried for Aman’s murder? The four arrested students of course, who have now been booked for muder after the police initially thought it to be a case of culpable homicide. These four in the end may either themselves fall victim to the greater social evil of indifference, if convicted, or may walk free as has been the end result in such cases. So where’s the real culprit?

Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal has assured Aman’s parents that the errants will not go scot free and will be punished as per the law of the land. He only needs to be reminded that the state is still ‘managing’ with an anti-ragging ordinance even eight years after the Supreme Court directed all states to enact relevent laws to deal with ragging.

Ordering an inqiry into the incident, Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Anbumani Ramadoss is reported to have said that secretary and the director general of health services would look into this case, along with the overall ragging scenario across medical colleges in the country.Referring to the report prepared by the Raghavan Committee on preventing ragging in educational institutions, Ramadoss said the question was of implementing the recommendations endorsed by the Supreme Court. Well, who else is to see that the recommendations are implemeted in at least all medical colleges, if not the health minister of  this country?

The Supreme Court of India had first banned ragging in May 2001 and in 2007 the SC again took suo moto notice of the fact that ragging was still on. So should not the Central government, sate government, and the medcal college authorities be held guilty for contempt of court?

The SC’s 2001 order had said that it is the responsibility of college principals and directors to check ragging. But the order had not specified what it would mean to not follow that responsibility! And therefore the medical college top bosses seem to be bound by no particular law to act even now. So amid this ambiguity, the bigger qestion remains – who will charge whom and for what.

There have been promising recommendations like making ragging a cognisable offence under the IPC and Supreme Court stricture that the punishment to be metted out in ragging cases has to be exemplary and justifiably harsh to act as a deterrent against recurrence of such incidents, but hardly anyone cares to implement them, perhaps because, just like students, the ‘grown-ups’ too believe ragging is part and parcel of life. It’s only when an Aman dies that our consciousness is shaken, but alas – only momentarily.

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15 COMMENTS

  1. I totally agree with these comments, because it is easy to blame but difficult to stand up and fight for the right cause, the media and the politicians refer this incident unfortunate which ofcourse it is but then the health minister of our own state does not even bother to visit the college (the site of incidence).

    It is now the responsibility of the people, teachers, principals and ofcourse the students to rise against ragging, the parents also need to take initiative and ask their wards not to indulge in such heinous acts.

    Need of the hour is nation wide awareness campaigns, as within few months time new admissions will come and again people will talk about this menace and "just talk", but we need to irradiate it, these campaigns should include freshers, senior students and teachers.

    I being a student and that too from the same profession that Aman was, would like to take this initiative and for this purpose, I request people from all walks of life to lend me their support so that we all can fight against this social evil and rise from this deep slumber of so called "RAGGING".

  2. The entire nation should stand up and unite to ensure that the culprits are

    hanged without trail.

    The torture that Aman underwent before he finally lost his life can not be expressed in words.Your heart cries.

    Today it was Aman, tomorrow it can be our child. Its high time for Govt to wakeup before this movement from all walks of life against the culprits and the College gets out of hand.Wake authorities Wake.

  3. It is not time for Govt and other authorities to wakeup, now it is our time(youngesters, parents and teachers) to wakeup and take initiatives against ragging.

  4. We all 'killed' him ! The 1's who kept quiet before and the 1's who are quiet now ! Keep opening/promising more med colleges and churning out more "munnabhais" who are becoming more of "bhais" instead of providing decent facilities for rural postings…and our typical middle-class service mindset which forces many of these to go for medicine…How can 1 serve humanity when 1 is not even a human being ?!

  5. it is time youngsters get united and teach these criminal minded students a lesson. this incident of aman's death should not be forgotten and sustained campaign should be launched.

  6. HEY THIS IS NAINA JAIN. HE WAS MY FRIEND. WE HAVE SHARED THE SAME CLASSROOM.

    WE ARE GOING TO HAVE A CANDLELIGHT VIGIL IN AMNANN'S MEMEORY ON SATURDAY, 14TH MARCH AT 5.00PM AT JANTAR MANTAR NEW DWLHI.

    PLEASE SUPPORT PUR CAUSE AND A.S.K. FOR TIMELY JUSTICE AGAINST RAGGING!

    CONTACT:

    SIDDHARTH:9818718374

    SAHIL:9899313031

    NAINA:9818899109

  7. The incident just is not a case of ragging. It is cold blooded murder by 4 seniors who wanted te juniors to supply them uninterupted liquor or booze.

    This is a case of extortion & black mail of an innocent new comer to the Medical college.

    The menace cannot be checked by College authorties alone. Partents have to be awake to the doings of their sons and daughters. Like in this cse the parents of these murderers will refuse to accept that their sons are guilty and will apply all pressure to get scot free.

    It is a shame on careless parenting in India.

  8. The Aman Kachroo ragging death case is a classical example how the principal medical college used the coverup operation to label a case of ragging and murder into a case of heart attack.Not only this attempt was made through higher up to influence the postmortem report by the principal.Now attempt is made to destroy the evidences and tamper & pressurise the young medicos who have been ragged

  9. I am an alumini of Indira Gandhi medical college shimla and have felt very ashamed of the events that have occured at Tanda.It is very shocking that such ragging still exists and was actually allowed to carry on. This is truely a retrograde step. Lessons must be learnt and we must ensure such an incident should never ever happen again. As part of overseas IGMC alumini group we condemn this shameful act and are willing to offer any sort of help for the family to bring them justice.This issue should not be left to die after the initial media hype.

  10. it was a tragedy waiting to happen for years and many similar incidents, though not resulting in death, tend to happen year after year and we all including authorities preferred to keep a blind eye on it,

    now this hue and cry reminds me of a typical reaction which happens after every such incident.

    when our jawans die in kargil, all of a sudden we realize the basic needs of the army which were being ignored for years, when our security personnels die in mumbai, then we realize that our policemen carry ancient weapons, after loosing tens of pilots, we understand that there is some fault with MIG aeroplanes and similarly now when we have lost one innocent 'JANGOO'. all of a sudden we all have realized that ragging should be stopped.

    i think only those people should have a right to write something or offer their condolences to the family who have never done any ragging during their time and i certainly do not fall in such category. we have always learnt that it is the duty of seniors to set the jangooes.

    the principal says that he was not aware that ragging is going on in college though even if you ask a paanwala near the college, even he can tell that every year the juniors come in their medical dress and jangans come with their coloured ribbons to openly declare that ragging is going on.

    we all our equally responsible for aman's death, those who suffered ragging without making any noise and those who went scotfree after ragging their juniors.

    our system is so pathetic that we can never act and we always react but alas!! our reaction is so short lived that we never learn anything from it. our politicians are trying their level best to get maximum mileage from this unfortunate incident particularly when elections are round the corner. we all owe moral responsibility for the murder of aman and we should consider ourselves lucky that our families did not have to go through this trauma though it could very easily be one of us in aman's place.

    may his soul rest in peace.

  11. The crime is committed by all those who knew but chose to keep quiet.

    We have one sutra of Nagrik Forum: If you see anything wrong, Do not Keep Quiet, Prem Se Baat Karo.

    Do not, i repeat do never keep quiet. Keeping Quiet is like joining the criminals.

    Janak Parikh

  12. I totally agree when someone says that the administeration of the state medical colleges was sleeping with eyes shut to wait and watch something like this happening.Being a student in one of these colleges I like many other students from these institutions know that this is not novel here. Every year all the freshers from the institutions are subjected to the same trauma be it the imposed dress code or the verbal and physical abuse. The four accused students must have gone through the same must have been brutally slapped when they were freshers as everyone who joins these institutions each year is. Even the professors call it as the basic conditioning of the new students who must get adapted to the new environment.I believe that its not those 4 accused who are to be punished here but all of us who kept silent for all these years and waited for something like thisto happen. Had someone reacted to the complaint filed by one of the accused last year when he was facing the brunt he would have not ended up with such a scar on his mind and soul which instigated him to take revenge of whatever happened with him by beating up some innocent jangoo. This is what happens every year at igmc,tanda and other related colleges. i urge people to fight against the evil and not blame the 4 accused as all of us knw that we could have been at their place. especially those studying at these institutions know this better. i hope to see a positive change after this.

  13. I have visited this medical college once because my friend used to study there and I was so much disappointed after being there. The guys are more interested in boozing and commanding their juniors rather then studying and thinking about their future. I believe there should be strict rules for ragging and these 4 guys must be jailed!!!

  14. Everything is gng wrng in this country…I think now a days a life of a person seems to b worthless..Colleges are ment for education..not 4 ragging……Aman is nt the first victim,there are cases like this before..!

    In my opinion simply putting rules are not enough,it should be done as said..!

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