Hounded out by fear
There are many who drop out, not willing to tolerate abusive, humiliating and physically damaging ragging.
One of them was Liyana Arachchilage Shiran Sandun Kumara who gave up his dream to become an engineer. He has now started an electrical item repair shop after dropping out from Eastern University.
He said that on the morning of March 21, 2022, he was assaulted by a group of seniors twice for greeting them in English and the second time for not greeting them. He said that he was knocked against a wall by the seniors and later the same day was threatened and asked to come to the dorm of seniors to be ragged at night.
"The seniors used to take freshers to their rooms, and my friends who were taken used to say that they had to strip naked and do humiliating acts,'' he claimed.
Although complaints were made to the marshalls, they did not take the matter seriously.
He took his laptop and left for home, and as a friend told the seniors may accuse him of theft. He headed to the Ampara police where they recorded his complaint and forwarded it to the Akkaraipattu police. The seniors, too, had followed him home and persuaded his parents to send the student back to campus.
However, when he returned, the senior students had taken him to the Akkaraipattu police the next day to withdraw the complaint. The police officer had advised him against it and asked him to meet a senior officer at the Kalmunai police. Thereafter, the seniors took him to the Kalmunai police. Once they returned to the Akkaraipattu police station, he was admitted to Akkaraipattu hospital as the police said he needed to get a report and ask the seniors to leave.
He returned to campus with the police the day after and once more left the university on March 25 and stayed home for three days but when he returned he was ill-treated. His batch mates were told not to speak to him and banned from the canteen.
On the next holiday, he returned home and decided not to return to campus.
Acting on a complaint to the Justice Ministry, the UGC called for full details of the incident from the student.