Seven Indiana University Fraternity Members Charged After Hazing Sends Two Pledges to the Hospital

Seven members of Indiana University's Phi Kappa Psi fraternity face felony charges after prosecutors say a hazing ritual last fall put two pledges in the hospital with a potentially life-threatening condition.

According to court records obtained by CBS4, the incident happened in October 2025 in the fraternity's chapter room. More than two dozen pledges were allegedly lined up in an empty room with a metal trough of ice water and ordered to perform strenuous exercises for roughly three hours.

Court documents described "brother squats," where pledges locked arms and squatted in unison until they couldn't continue. Pledges were also allegedly forced through push-ups, planks and leg lifts, with some then required to plunge into the ice bath and recite the fraternity's creed, according to WTHR.

Two pledges ended up in the hospital for multiple days after complaining of difficulty walking and thigh pain. One developed dark urine, a classic warning sign. Both were diagnosed with rhabdomyolysis, a condition in which damaged muscle tissue breaks down and dumps proteins and electrolytes into the bloodstream. If left untreated, it can cause kidney failure. The Cleveland Clinic lists it among the more dangerous consequences of extreme physical exertion.

According to court documents, one hospitalized pledge said fraternity president Arjunkumar Patel sent him messages instructing him to lie to doctors and blame his condition on a normal gym workout. Prosecutors allege Patel then told the pledge to delete the messages.

Patel has been charged with felony hazing and obstruction of justice. Six other members, Joseph Moon, Noah Kucera, Logan Conforti, Casey Clarke, Ryan Donohue and Kaptur Nowaczyk, face two counts each of felony hazing, according to the Monroe County Prosecutor's Office as reported by CBS4.

Court documents allege Moon, of Elkhart, ran the ritual and decided what activities pledges would be put through. Nowaczyk, Donohue, Clarke, Conforti and Kucera made up the fraternity's Member Education Committee and were present for the session. Patel was reportedly at a different event but was supervising remotely.

These are charges, not convictions. Every one of the seven men is entitled to a presumption of innocence and a chance to contest the allegations in court. Hazing cases often turn on messy, conflicting accounts from pledges under pressure not to talk, and defense attorneys in cases like this typically argue that participation was voluntary or that injuries resulted from ordinary athletic strain rather than coercion. None of that has been tested yet in front of a judge.

Indiana University moved quickly on the administrative side. The Phi Kappa Psi chapter was placed on a cease-and-desist in late October 2025, halting all organizational activity.

"The Office of Student Life holds all fraternities and sororities to high standards of safety, accountability and respectful experiences for every member," Lamar Hylton, vice chancellor for student life at Indiana University Bloomington, said in a statement to WTHR. "The allegations made in the charges announced by the Monroe County Prosecutor's Office are inconsistent with Indiana University's values and expectations of student conduct."

The statement leaves open the obvious question of what oversight existed before two students ended up hospitalized. Rhabdomyolysis from hazing isn't rare in college Greek life. Multiple universities have shut down chapters over near-identical patterns: forced group exercise to exhaustion, ice baths, and pressure to stay silent about injuries. Indiana's move to suspend the chapter mirrors what other schools have done after similar incidents, but it doesn't answer whether IU's Greek life office had any warning signs before October.

The case now moves to Monroe County court, where Patel faces the more serious combination of hazing and obstruction charges tied directly to the alleged cover-up attempt. No trial date has been reported. The outcome will determine not just individual liability but whether prosecutors can make obstruction charges stick in hazing cases where victims are pressured to protect the people who injured them.