Bhopal: Authorities of the premier Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology (MANIT) here on Thursday said they have "taken action" against 20 second year students accused of ragging their juniors.

The students against whom action has been taken belong to B. Planning second Year. The action follows complaints by first year students of the same department on Wednesday of mass ragging involving mental and physical abuse. However, the college authorities refused to say what action they have taken against the erring students.

The MANIT management learnt of the incident after some victims on Wednesday sent an SMS to Bhopal divisional commissioner Pukhraj Maroo, who in turn asked Bhopal Collector Shivshekhar Shukla to look into the matter.

"Though the junior students withdrew their complaint later in the day in writing, the Proctorial Board of the Institute decided to go ahead with the action since the students had earlier confessed about the incident before the full proctorial board," said Dean of Students' Affairs of MANIT V.K. Khare.

He said that the girls accused of ragging have also been taken to task.

Khare said that the action has been taken to discourage the students from getting involved in any such incident in future.

"We have considered the incident as a cognizable offence and initiated action," the Dean said.

The incident occurred at lunch time (12 noon to 1.30 p.m.) on Wednesday at the Department of Architecture and Planning and came to light after police and district administration personnel reached the college.

This is the second time that an incident of ragging has been reported at MANIT this year. The first incident occurred in the last semester and action was initiated against some senior students, though the extent of the incident was not so big. IANS