MP CM says guilty in Assamese student assault case will not be spared; non-bailable section invoked

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav on January 16 asserted that those responsible for the assault on an Assamese student at Indira Gandhi National Tribal University (IGNTU) will not be spared, as police invoked a non-bailable section in the case.

The incident occurred around 4 pm on Tuesday when Hiros Jyoti Das, a 22-year-old postgraduate student from Assam, was allegedly assaulted by five fellow students at an IGNTU hostel in Amarkantak. An FIR was registered shortly before midnight on Wednesday based on Das’s complaint.

In a post on X, Chief Minister Yadav said the police have registered an FIR and are taking due legal action. He added that the university administration has also initiated action against the accused students. “No one will be spared,” the Chief Minister stated.

According to Anuppur Superintendent of Police Moti-ur-Rehman, the Medical Legal Certificate of the victim revealed injuries to his nose and the area below his eyes. Based on these findings, Section 114 (causing grievous injury) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) was added to the case. The section is non-bailable and carries a maximum punishment of seven years’ imprisonment.

Initially, the accused were booked under Sections 115(2) (voluntarily causing hurt), 296 (obscene acts and words), 351(3) (criminal intimidation), and 3(5) (common intention) of the BNS. With the addition of Section 114, the case has become non-bailable, the SP said.

Police said that as per the investigation so far, the accused had asked the victim about his place of origin before the assault, but no racial remarks were made. In his complaint, Das alleged that while returning to his hostel room from the washroom, the accused questioned him about where he was from and why he was studying at the university before attacking him.

Das named Anurag Pande, Jatin Singh, Rajnish Tripathi, Vishal Yadav, and Utkarsh Singh as the accused. Earlier, Amarkantak police station house officer Lal Bahadur Tiwari said the five accused students had either fled or returned to their homes in Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.

Attempts to contact the victim and IGNTU Registrar Professor N S Hari Narayana Moorthy were unsuccessful.

The incident comes close on the heels of the death of Anjel Chakma, a 24-year-old MBA student from Tripura, who was allegedly attacked with a knife at a private university in Dehradun, Uttarakhand, on December 9. Chakma succumbed to his injuries on December 26 after undergoing treatment for 17 days, triggering nationwide outrage over student safety on campuses.