[CNN IBN] No arrests in 9-yr-old death by ragging case

New Delhi:
The silence of the house echoes across the blank walls C L Anto pores into the Criminal Referencer.

Consulting criminal files and making notes: this has been Anto's life for the past nine long years, since a management consultant was forced to turn into a lawyer, nine years since their only child, Indu, died due to ragging.

Indu was studying in Class 11 in Mumbai's prestigious Sophia College, where her hostel seniors repeatedly ragged her.

“There was nude dancing and all kinds of vulgarities- injections, drug taking, smoking and all kind of sexual perversions. Yes, she complained before and on her behalf I took up this matter with the authorities twice or thrice. That day I made a mistake. When I complained she was summoned in front of the principal and main accused Melissa and company threatened her. That day she called and said she was ready to leave the college,” said Anto.

That day was August 3, 1998. On August 4, Anto got a call that his daughter had fallen from the third floor of the hostel building and died.

The shock and trauma of losing young Indu destroyed the family. The fact that they lost her to a mindless act of cruelty in her dream college made it worse.

Indu was in Sophia College for just 14days but in just that fortnight she wrote of verbal and mental abuse everyday.

Sophia College had the powerful backing of the Church and soon the case was covered up and made to look like a suicide.

Indu's post mortem confirmed that she had 27 injuries before her death. Her diary mentions the names of two raggers: Melissa D'Silva and Greta Collaso, one a final year BSc student, the other in Class 12, recognized by the High Court as a dying declaration.

Yet, there were no arrests. All Anto managed was to prove in court that his girl was murdered.
“Society has made us orphans. Sophia College has made me the orphan,” said Anto.

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