The incident occurred on the concluding night of ‘Elixir 2008’, the cultural festival of BHU’s Institute of Medical Sciences (IMS). Festival organisers have alleged that during a DJ night at the Swatantrata Bhawan auditorium, a group of students from BHU’s Institute of Technology (IT) entered the venue by force and started misbehaving with girl students.

When an organiser tried to intervene, the culprits, mostly from the ceramics engineering course, slapped him and attacked his friends.

As the university security staff tried to prevent students from entering the venue, they started damaging motorcycles parked outside the auditorium and even indulged in stone pelting, which resulted in minor injuries to some other students. The situation was brought under control when the district police personnel reached the spot. Another group of engineering students, meanwhile, went to the Dhanwantri Hostel of the IMS and damaged motorcycles, notice boards and newspaper stands. The attackers also tried to damage property at the Ruiya Hostel, which houses medical students and the IMS library.

The four injured in the attack were offered preliminary treatment at the Emergency Unit of BHU Hospital.

“A case was registered on Monday under Sections 147, 323, 336, 504 and 427 of the IPC against more than 400 engineering students,” said Sanjay Pandey, Station Officer (Lanka Police Station).

“We have not received anything in writing from the IT or IMS students. Hence the culprits will only be identified after receiving concrete information about the entire incident,” said BHU Chief Proctor SK Singh.