In what appears to be a case of ragging, 11 first-year B.Tech students of National Institute of Technology, Warangal, were beaten up and locked in a room by a group of final-year students on Friday afternoon.
While NIT authorities denied it was ragging, saying the victims, who joined the institution in July 2011, were hardly freshers, the police, who questioned the victims, are preparing to register a case of ragging. The accused are yet to be identified.
According to sources, the seniors called the first-year students to their hostel room in the 14th Block at 3 pm and whipped them with belts. They then locked up the juniors and fled.
NIT director Prof. T. Srinivas Rao and dean of student affairs Prof. G. Radhakrishna, along with other officials, broke the lock and freed the students. The juniors were taken to the campus dispensary.