All 7 Amity students sent to judicial remand Read more: All 7 Amity students sent to judicial remand - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiati

LUCKNOW: All seven engineering students who were arrested on Sunday in connection with a brawl with another student group of their institute were on Monday produced before a local court which subsequently sent them to jail. Meanwhile, the institute authorities, though, initiated proceedings to suspend the accused students, they clarified that the incident was not that of ragging but a simple brawl.

On Sunday, a group of fourth-year students clashed with a third-year group following a heated exchange earlier in the day.

The reports said a group of seniors had hauled up a third-year student, identified as Azad, on Sunday afternoon for not wishing them when he came across them a couple of days back.

In the afternoon, while Azad was having tea with his classmates at the hostel mess, the group of seniors - later identified as Mrityunjay Pathak, Jyoti, Mohit, Ankit, Vipul Thakur, Karamveer and Afaaque - arrived on the scene and allegedly started intimidating Azad. Things turned violent when the seniors allegedly poured a cup of hot tea over Azad and thrashed the juniors when Azad and his batchmates - Saif Masood Siddiqui, Madhurendra Kumar Giri, Vivek, Yogesh Singh, Deepak Yadav and Pranjal Singh - tried to resist.

The situation was brought under control after hostel warden Vishweshwar Singh reached the spot and directed the two groups to return to their respective hostel rooms and also informed the local Chinhat police about the incident.

Saif and Madhurendra - batchmates of Azad - had suffered serious injuries and were rushed to the Mayo Hospital in Gomtinagar. Vivek lodged a written complaint with the Chinhat police. On the basis of the complaint, the police detained Mohit, Karamveer, Ankit, JP, Vipul and Mrityunjay. They were subsequently arrested on charges of assault causing severe injuries. They were produced before a local court on Monday which remanded them to judicial custody.

Apart from the seven who were sent to jail, the university authorities also initiated action against two others - later identified as Afaaque and Sudhir - following allegations of their involvement in the incident. A four-member proctorial board committee has also been instituted to probe into the incident and submit a report within a week even as rumour mills began to work overtime, painting the incident as that of ragging.

Amity University's public relation officer (PRO) A Chaubey on Monday rubbished reports that described the incident as that of ragging. The two groups involved in the incident were third-year and fourth-year students and not freshers, hence there was no scope of ragging, the AU administration said.

Chaubey confirmed the reports of suspension proceedings against the nine students. About the condition of the injured, he said, "The condition of Vivek and Saif is better. They have been discharged from the hospital after providing proper medication. There is nothing to worry about."