Admitting that a "dirty culture" of extreme ragging and sadistic celebrations have afflicted its student hostels, the National Institute of Technology (NIT), Warangal, Thursday ordered a probe into shocking videos of ragging that were leaked to the media on Wednesday.

The institute said while one of these videos could be a case of ragging, other visuals were probably of a birthday or job placement party "with a sadistic touch". The NIT, Director Prof T Sreenivasa Rao said, was trying to find out if the incident was old or a recent one.

Rao, however, admitted that even birthdays and job placements were being celebrated with pervert acts and nudity in the hostels. "Whether it is ragging or a celebration, the videos clearly show sadism among students. We think only senior students were involved and it was probably a party but still it is a dirty culture," Rao told The Indian Express. "We have warned students several times not to indulge in this kind of ragging or partying....We are inquiring into these videos and exemplary action will be taken."

And even if it was found that it was not a case of ragging but a "perverted" birthday party, Rao said, action would be taken against the guilty students.

Some NIT officials, who had lodged a police complaint in March after incidents of ragging came to light  students were locked in a room and made to dance naked; those who refused were beaten up  said they were confounded by some of the things students were forced to do in the name of ragging.

"In the past too we had incidents of extreme ragging that were of dangerous nature and the incidents turned violent as senior B. Tech students kept on ragging their juniors. At that time the students were let off after a warning. We also informed the police.... We called their parents and told them also," an NIT official said.

The videos that surfaced on Wednesday showed students being kicked, pushed around, roughed up, forced to inflate condoms and touch their private parts. One of them showed a boy, stripped to his underwear and in tears, forced to dance while dozens of students clicked his photos.

The incident comes a year to the month after some students from Nepal complained that ragging had taken a sadistic turn and that they were being constantly harassed.

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