5 MP students expelled for assaulting PG student from Assam; police probing racial angle

WEeks after the demise of Tripura pupil Anjel Chakma after a unrelenting assail in Dehradun, a similar incident has occurred in Madhya Pradesh. As per a cover by news agency PTI, five students were expelled for allegedly assaulting a 22-year-old postgraduate student from Assam in Madhya Pradesh's Anuppur.Police officials stated that the student, who is from Indira Gandhi National Tribal University in Amarkantak, was assaulted around 4 PM on Tuesday in the university hostel.An FIR was registered against five students and 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), Anuppur Sub-Divisional Officer of Police Naveen Tiwari told PTI.“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 further added.The accused have been identified as Anurag Pande, Jatin Singh, Rajnish Tripathi, Vishal Yadav and Utkarsh Singh.The attack comes on the heels of the death of Anjel Chakma, a Tripura student who was brutally attacked in Dehradun. Chakma died on December 26 after undergoing treatment for 17 days.Also Read | ‘Brutally attacked, called Chinese': Angel Chakma's father describes horror after son's deathWhile Chakma's family claims he was targeted for being from the northeast, Uttarakhand police have denied this allegation.For the attack in MP, police officials have stated that the matter is still under investigation and a racial angle into the assault will also be probed.“The motive behind the assault would be clear after questioning the students. Das’ medico-legal certificate report is awaited," Tiwari told PTI.Congress hits out at BJP over attackReacting to the assault, Congress' Madhya Pradesh unit has hit out at the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in the state.In a statement, Leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly Umang Singhar alleged that some unruly students at the IGNTU hostel made racist remarks against Das and assaulted him after he protested against the statements."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," said Singhar.He further added that IGNTU, which had been established for higher education, had turned into a hub for BJP and the RSS.BJP's student wing ABVP protested the assault against Das and sated that an atmosphere as been created in the university.“If things don’t improve at the central university in two weeks, we will launch an agitation,” Anuppur district ABVP organising secretary Shivendra Chaturvedi told PTI.