Eighteen second-year students of the Tripura Medical College have been booked for ragging based on a complaint lodged by the institute’s principal.

Additionally, the college authorities have suspended them from the hostel for a year and imposed a fine of ₹50,000 on each of them.

An Agartala police official said an FIR was lodged against the 18 students on October 25 under Section 4 of the Tripura Educational Institutions (prevention of ragging) Act, 1990, following a complaint by the principal Dr Arindam Dutta.

“The seniors (second-year students) had created a WhatsApp group and were issuing threats to the juniors (first-year students) to do this and that acts which constitute ragging,” the police official told The Telegraph.

He added, “We have not arrested them because the maximum jail term under the act is four years. But we have issued them notices to appear for questioning. We questioned four of them on Monday.”

The college, established in 2005, is a private college but managed by a society.

A college official told this newspaper that two of the students have been fined an additional ₹25,000 each for allegedly abusing members of the NGO, Society Against Violence in Education (SAVE), which was tasked by the National Medical Commission (NMC) to investigate the complaint of ragging.

Sources said an “anonymous” complaint was lodged with the NMC with screenshots of the WhatsApp interaction following which the SAVE and then the college got involved.

“Another five second-year students were imposed an additional ₹10,000 for being repeat offenders, meaning they indulged in acts constituted as ragging,” the official said.

The accused students have been asked to pay the fine within ten days.