Local student assaulted inside NIT Silchar Campus, lodges FIR; Police books 9 under several sections of IPC

Silchar Police has booked at least nine students from the National Institute of Technology Silchar. They have been booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code for allegedly committing wrongful confinement, abuse, breaking into the hostel room, beating up, and making death threats to a student of the Electrical Engineering Department.

Rajon Das, who is a resident of Patherkandi and a student in the sixth semester from the Department of Electrical Engineering, was allegedly confined, abused, and severely beaten up by a group of students of the institute itself on April 28. The perpetrators then broke into Rajon’s hostel room, beat him up again, vandalized, destroyed his expensive gadgets, and snatched his wallet and money. Later on, these perpetrators allegedly intimidated Rajon with death threats and warned him not to speak up against their misdeeds.

Silchar Police registered FIR (FIR no 1148, 04/05/2022) on May 4 against nine students connected to that incident. They are Sanjan Newar, Rahit Lahia, Rahul Pegu, Prantaran, Rajit Das, Abhilekh, Kimti Handique, Prasanta Deka and Sanjoti (surname not given). They have been under different sections of the Indian Penal Code. IPC sections – 143 (unlawful assembly), 342 (wrongful confinement), 294 (abusing with obscene words), 448 (trespassing house), 325 (causing grievous physical injury), 427 (mischief), 379 (theft), 506 (criminal intimidation) – have been invoked against the alleged perpetrators.

Assistant Sub-inspector of Silchar Police station Gokul Sinha will be investigating the incident; however, no one has been apprehended by the the Police. NIT Silchar authority has suspended these students from the hostel, but no disciplinary actions were taken against them. “They have just a few days left in the institute, as they have already appeared for their final examination, so NIT has a meager chance of disciplinary action against them,” the complainant told Barak Bulletin.

In the description of the incident, it is known that Rajon was physically harassed by the persons mentioned above on April 28 at midnight; they allegedly confined Rajon in the night-canteen of hostel 7. The incident started hatred exchanges between the junior Rajon with the senior students. Things soon turned into physical and verbal abuse. Rajon was allegedly beaten up three times by the gang of senior students.

In his complaint, Rajon mentioned, “They tried to kill me.” “Initially, I tried to block their attacks, but my hands got unconscious, and I was about to lose my sense too, few of my hostel mates came and rescued me from the place, but later on, they broke into my room and assaulted me again.”

“The accused destroyed by Apple mobile and MacBook- valued almost 2 lac and snatched rupees 1350 and my wallet,” the complainant mentioned in the complaint letter submitted to Ghungoor Police Outpost. The Warden of the concerned hostel came almost two hours after the incident, and he was taken to the Silchar Medical College by the institute ambulance for initial treatments. “The authority had threatened me not to file FIR, or else they would suspend me from the hostel,” Rajon told Barak Bulletin.

Barak Bulletin reached out to the registrar of National Institute of Technology Dr. K.L. Baishnab, he said that the complainant has not taken any consent from the institution before the FIR, and so they refused to give any statement. “It was brought to our notice and we had already taken action in this case, and the mater is under investigation, regarding FIR we don’t know anything,” registrar said.

A group of people are even trying to invoke an Assamese-Bengali narrative around the incident. But among the perpetrators Rajon has accused, there are North Indians too and hence, this Assamese-Bengali narrative falls flat. However, if he was assaulted, he deserves justice. The tonality of the NIT Authority suggests that they will take action against the complainant for lodging the FIR.

It is worth mentioning here that Rajon was assaulted on April 28 and he waited more than week before lodging the FIR. His family sources have informed that they had expected the NIT authority to take some action against the students who assaulted Rajon. Instead, they say that the Dean SW went on to threaten them against taking the legal route. This is when they decided to go and knock the doors of Police station.

How NIT Silchar and Ghungoor Police deals with the matter is something that remains to be seen.