In a shocking incident of alleged ragging in Pune, a second year student of Deccan Education Society Law College committed suicide on Sunday after allegedly facing harassment by a group of students of the same college.

22 year-old Prashant Chitalkar ended his life by jumping into a well near his home in Rahuri Taluk, Ahmednagar.

The police have so far booked ten students, out of whom four have been identified by the father of the deceased and complainant in the case under the Anti-Ragging Act.

Bandopant Chitalkar, who is a police havaldar by profession, stated in his complaint that his son committed suicide following sustained mental torture by the youths.

According to the complaint, Prashant was told by students that his father earned money through corrupt means. The family members of the victim informed the media that Prashant attempted suicide earlier too but the matter was not reported then because they had feared adverse repercussions.

Meanwhile, the college authorities have ordered the constitution of a fact-finding committee to probe into the allegation and only after receiving a report within 48-hours will they take action against the students found guilty.

Such events of ragging are blotches on the civil liberty mandates of our state and not enough attempts are made to plug the existing lacunae.

We offer our condolences to the bereaved family of Prashant and the others who have lost their dear and near ones to such mindless acts of ragging.

Isn’t it time to question those involved and at least try to remedy the situation?

Less than three months ago a Nalsar Hyderabad student was also believed to have killed himself after jumping to his death. [Note: this does not appear to have been related to ragging.]

In a Legally India forum discussion readers have generally said that ragging was not common in law schools.

Do you think that budding lawyers are nicer to each other than the engineers of 3 Idiots or other professions?