Going Undercover: How a 24-year-old cop cracked a ragging case in Madhya Pradesh college
Going Undercover: How a 24-year-old cop cracked a ragging case in Madhya Pradesh college
It was one of her first assignments. And 24-year-old Shalini Chouhan cracked it. The newly inducted constable played a big role to get to the bottom of a ragging case in a college in Madhya Pradesh’s Indore. For that, she had to go undercover.
Chouhan mingled with students at the government-run Mahatma Gandhi Memorial (MGM) medical college in Indore, pretending to be one for three months. She’d attend classes, sometimes bunk them and hang with friends.
Carrying a tote bag filled with books, she convinced the students she was one among them. All along, she gathered enough information about senior students who were allegedly involved in the ragging of first-year MBBS students in July earlier this year.
Chouhan identified 11 students who ragged their juniors. They have been suspended from the college for three months, according to a report on NDTV.
The ragging case
The investigation started anonymous complaints were received against the college’s senior students. First-year students at the college were ragged brutally and were made to perform vulgar acts like pretending to have sex with pillows.
Tehzeeb Qazi, the inspector Sanyogitaganj police station, who oversaw the undercover operation, revealed that they were notified of a complaint that was registered with the University Grants Commission (UGC) helpline. The management filed a criminal case against unidentified students on 24 July.
“The complaint on the UGC helpline had complete details about the ragging incident, but it did not mention the names of the accused and the complainant student. The complaint also carried screenshots of chats on a social media platform, but the number of students involved had not been revealed,” PTI reported, quoting Qazi as saying. He added, “As per the probe, the accused senior students had allegedly ragged their juniors by making them perform some obscene acts.”
Also read: Controversial book author Farhat Khan arrested from Pune: Madhya Pradesh home minister
The undercover op
When the police first tried to investigate the case they faced a roadblock. Qazi revealed that the students were so scared that they did not come forward after seeing the police in uniform. Hence they decided to go back to “good old ground-level policing.”
This is when Chouhan came in. All of 24, she could pass off as a college student. Along with other constables, she was directed to spend time identifying the suspects by role-playing as a student, hanging out in the canteen and on campus, and mingling with other college-goers.
While interacting with the students, the cops learnt about the disturbing ragging incidents. They got the witnesses on board and cracked the case.
Chouhan, while speaking to NDTV, revealed that this was an “entirely new experience” for her and explained how she managed to fit into the environment. She would speak with the students, talk about herself, and gradually they started confiding in her.
Was her cover ever blown? Not really. She told the news channel that some students would question her but she would find a way to evade them and change the topic.
The 24-year-old cop said that the ragging at the college was brutal. She found out that “rough and aggressive” seniors had “a ragging division”, where in-day scholars would rag junior-day scholars, while senior hostel inmates would rag hostellers, according to a report in The Times of India.
The constable
This was one of Chouhan’s first assignments and she nailed it. The 24-year-old hails from Madhya Pradesh’s Bagli town in Dewas district and was posted at Indore’s Sanyogitaganj police station, the report says.
Her father, who also served as a police officer, died in 2010, and her mother in the following year. Chouhan was inspired by her father and decided to join the force.
Despite being a commerce graduate, she took upon the role of a nurse to crack the ragging case.
The outcome
The investigation has led to the suspension of the students. Of the 11 suspects, nine are from Madhya Pradesh and one student each is from Bengal and Bihar. Qazi told TOI, that the suspects come from middle-class families of teachers and well-to-do farmers; one is the son of a policeman.
With inputs from agencies
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