Five booked, expelled for assaulting Assamese student at Central university in Madhya Pradesh

Five students of the Indira Gandhi National Tribal University (IGNTU) in Madhya Pradesh’s Anuppur have been booked for allegedly assaulting an Assamese student on campus, police said on Friday (January 16, 2026). The five students have also been expelled from the Central university. 

Hirosh Jyoti Das, 22, an MA Economics student, was allegedly brutally assaulted inside a hostel at around 4 a.m. on January 13, by five students who arrived at his room in a drunken state. Mr. Das, who hails from Assam’s Sonitpur district, has a broken nose and has suffered injuries near his eyes as well as other parts of his body.

An FIR was registered on January 14 against Anurag Pandey, Jatin Singh, Rajnish Tripathi, Vishal Yadav, and Utkarsh Singh, all undergraduate students of different courses, based on a complaint from Mr. Das. The accused have been booked under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Sections 296, 115(2), 351(3), and 3(5), according to Anuppur Superintendent of Police Moti Ur Rahman.

‘No racism complaint’

Mr. Rahman, however, denied that any racial slurs were made by the accused. 

“The victim has also not mentioned any such thing in his complaint. There are about 25 students from northeastern States at the IGNTU and no complaint about racism has ever been received,” he told The Hindu.

“That day, the accused boys barged into the victim’s room as some of them used to live in that room in the past. The accused were drunk and an argument broke out between them, after which they assaulted Mr. Das,” the SP said, adding that an investigation is underway in the matter. 

‘I am scared’

Meanwhile, the IGNTU administration expelled the five accused students on January 14, based on recommendations from a nine-member internal probe committee that had been constituted after the incident. The accused students have been given 15 days to file their replies. 

Mr. Das has also issued a video statement expressing fear for his life and relating the incident to the brutal murder of Anjel Chakma, a 24-year-old MBA student from Tripura, in a racial attack in Uttarakhand last month.

“I am scared. Who will protect me if those people attack me again at night? I don’t want to die here the way a Tripura boy was murdered in Dehradun. I am the only son of my family. I want to achieve something in life and not get into such fights,” Mr. Das said, urging the authorities to ensure his safety.