An FIR has been registered against five students for the alleged assault of a 22-year-old postgraduate student from Assam at a hostel of Indira Gandhi National Tribal University in Amarkantak of Madhya Pradesh’s Anuppur district on Tuesday, an official has said.
The complaint was registered against the five accused students shortly before midnight on Wednesday on the complaint of Hiros Jyoti Das, a postgraduate student of economics from Assam at IGNTU, Anuppur Sub-Divisional Officer of Police Naveen Tiwari said.
While the accused were booked under sections 115(2) (voluntarily causing hurt), 296 (obscene acts and words), 351(3) (criminal intimidation) and 3(5) (common intention) of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), said the officer, the police are also investigating if the assault was racially motivated.
The officer said that the complainant, who has been studying at the university for three years, named Anurag Pande, Jatin Singh, Rajnish Tripathi, Vishal Yadav and Utkarsh Singh in the assault.
The incident comes close on the heels of the death of Anjel Chakma, 24, a student from Tripura, in Dehradun last month, which prompted national outrage and calls for action and laws against such hate crimes.
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“The university informed us that the five students were expelled by the disciplinary committee from the university a day earlier. We registered the FIR after receiving a complaint from Das. As per Das, when he was returning to his hostel room from the washroom, the accused allegedly asked him where he was from and what he was doing at the university. They then assaulted him around 4 pm on Tuesday,” the official said.
“The motive behind the assault would be clear after questioning the students. Das’ medico-legal certificate report is awaited,” Tiwari added.
The victim is said to have sustained injuries to his eyes, lips, nose and temples after being hit with a bracelet.
Meanwhile, the Madhya Pradesh Congress slammed the ruling BJP over the incident, with Leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly, Umang Singhar, alleging that some unruly students at the IGNTU hostel had made racist remarks against Das and assaulted him when he protested.
“Some youths linked to the ruling party consume drugs on the campus and assault students, while the university administration carries out only token action in the name of disciplinary proceedings,” Singhar alleged, adding that the university had been turned into a hub of the BJP and the RSS.
The RSS-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidhyarthi Parishad, in a statement, deplored the atmosphere at the IGNTU campus, alleging it has become a haven for “anti-social elements, drunkards and junkies” who encouraged the consumption of narcotic substances, resulting in serious incidents.
The ABVP also submitted a memorandum to the Anuppur Superintendent of Police protesting the assault. “If things don’t improve at the central university in two weeks, we will launch an agitation,” Anuppur district ABVP organising secretary Shivendra Chaturvedi said.
IGNTU Registrar Professor NS Hari Narayana Moorthy has not yet responded to questions from the press.
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