18 Students Of Assam Tech College Charged For Allegedly Assaulting Juniors On Campus

Eighteen students of National Institute of Technology (NIT) in Assam's Silchar have been charged for allegedly beating two juniors violently on the campus. The incident happened on March 31, involving students of the fourth semester.

A junior student, Siddhant Paitya, was rushed to Silchar Medical College and Hospital (SMCH) in a critical condition. Mr Paitya, supported by his family, filed a police case against 18 senior students on Saturday.

Mr Paitya alleged he was bullied by some seniors over his mother tongue and home town. On Tuesday night, he stayed at the NIT campus and parked his car in front of hostel No. 6. The seniors damaged the car just to bully him, the student said in the police complaint.

"I have been facing racist comments since the day I joined here. They damaged my car on that day and when I asked them about it, they started hitting me. For almost an hour they continued the violence," Mr Paitya said.

"They used racist slang, slapped and kicked me, broke three glass bottles on my head and my back. My friend tried to save me. He, too, was beaten. At one point, I thought I'd die," Mr Paitya added.

His mother said there are severe cuts and injuries on his body. "It was a horrifying incident. The authorities should look into this carefully before something bigger happens," the student's mother said.

The first information report (FIR) has the names of these students as the main accused - Sparsh Munakhia, Yogesh Kakodiys, Biswajit Deb Nath, Yash Tripartite, Abhijeet Kalita, Dhritiman Das, Sourav Deka, Shohan Paul, Pratyush Rai, Prafful Chatham, Anas Ahmed, Prateek vij, Dixit Agarwal, Mehul Dewangam, Raj Parishad, Satyabrata Both, Suprateek Gogoi and Biki Das.

Mr Paitya alleged some more seniors were also involved in assaulting him.

Cachar police chief Numal Mahatta said they filed the case based on the complainant from the second-year student. The police are talking with NIT officials.

"We have received the complaint and we are registering a case. This is an internal issue of NIT and we have to discuss with the authorities of the institute to proceed further," Mr Mahatta said.

NIT Silchar director Rajat Gupta declined to comment, asking reporters to speak to the dean.

Last year, nine final-year students were charged for assaulting a junior inside the hostel. They were removed from the campus, but no further action was taken against them.