3 engineering students accused of assaulting classmate

LUCKNOW: A group of students belonging to an engineering institute allegedly beat up a classmate of theirs so badly that he had to be hospitalised, here on Wednesday.

Reportedly, Abhinav Tiwari, a second year student of electrical engineering, was going for his class at 9.00am, when three of his classmates stopped him. After a heated exchange of words, the trio, along with about 12 other boys, started beating up Abhinav till he was unconscious. They then fled the spot. Later, other students, who spotted Abhinav lying unconscious, informed the college authorities and the victim's parents, who then admitted him to Dr Ram Manohar Lohiya Hospital. As per his parents, Abhinav did not regain consciousness till six hours after being admitted to the hospital.

Abhinav's father, Lalchand Tiwari, lodged an FIR against the three students namely, Saurabh Mishra, Prashant Singh, and Deepak Tiwari. Lalchand alleged that the incident was a case of ragging. "There had been problems in the past too. The same students had troubled my son and threatened him,'' he said. The victim's sister, Vibha, said that such a case had happened earlier too but, "no action was taken against the culprits''.

On the contrary, the institute's administrative officer, Horendra Sahai, when contacted, said: "Since the students are from the same class, it cannot be termed as a case of ragging. It is a simple case of clash between two rival groups. We will take appropriate action against the culprits.''