MGM Medical College Indore Faces Fresh Ragging Complaint

First-year MBBS students say seniors banged on hostel doors past midnight and confiscated phones during Ganpati, prompting the NMC to demand answers within a day.

A group of first-year MBBS students at MGM Medical College in Indore have filed a fresh complaint alleging ragging by seniors, and the National Medical Commission's anti-ragging cell has asked the college to report back within 24 hours.

According to the complaint, seniors entered the students' hostel sometime between 1am and 3am and went door to door, asking juniors to step outside. Scared, the students say they simply didn't open their doors. They've also alleged that a security guard was around when this happened but did nothing to stop the seniors from getting in.

There's a second allegation tucked into the same complaint. During the Ganpati festival, the students say they were called to a meeting where seniors took away their mobile phones. The complaint asks for action under existing anti-ragging regulations and court directions on the subject.

The college has responded by pulling CCTV footage from Block 6, the hostel block where first-year students live. Under hostel rules, senior students aren't supposed to enter Block 6 at all, which is exactly why the late-night visits have raised questions about how strictly that rule is actually being enforced, and about hostel security more broadly during the night shift.

The anti-ragging committee met on Monday and recorded statements from the first-year students involved. College officials have said action will follow if the footage or the statements back up the allegations.

This isn't an isolated flare-up. Roughly ten days before this complaint, a postgraduate student at MTH Hospital, which is affiliated with MGM, had filed a separate ragging complaint. That one led to an inquiry, action against the head of the department concerned, and a revised duty roster. Even before that, in September, around 50 students from the 2024 MBBS batch reportedly moved out of their hostel citing ragging-related trouble. MGM has seen complaints from both PG and MBBS students in the past, several of which resulted in inquiries and disciplinary action.

Dean Dr Arvind Ghanghoria confirmed the college has received the latest complaint and said a committee is looking into it. He hasn't given a timeline beyond what the NMC has already set.

Separately, and unrelated to the ragging complaints, Dr Ghanghoria also spoke this week about the hospital's free diagnostic programme, which now covers around 250 kinds of tests, some of which would cost up to Rs 10,000 at a private lab. More than 10,000 such tests are being run free every month across eight hospitals linked to MGM, including MY Hospital and the Cancer Hospital, and OPD footfall has climbed from about 3,000 to over 5,000 patients a day since the system went digital.

What happens next depends on that CCTV footage. If it backs the students' account, MGM will have to explain not just this incident but why a hostel block that's supposed to be off-limits to seniors keeps turning up in these complaints.