Witnesses today said at least 15 to 20 men, some of them carrying countrymade pistols, entered the hostel in Maharani Bagh, South Delhi — the victim, undergraduate student Saurabh Thapar, 24, was sleeping in his room.

Thapar, who received multiple injuries, is said to be stable now.

According to Thapar’s complaint to police, the assailants included three postgraduate students from the institution — all three have been suspended from college and dismissed from the hostel, it was informed on Monday.

A student in the hostel today alleged that the assailants arrived in two cars and several motorbikes. “They pushed aside the lone guard and barged upstairs,” the student, who claimed to have been present at the time, said. “They went to Thapar’s room and beat him up — it went on for around 15 minutes.”

According to the witness, when a fellow hosteller went to check on the ruckus, the assailants took out a countrymade pistol and “asked him to mind his own business”.

At least seven other students at the hostel alleged that five assailants carried guns; most of the others, they said, were armed with rods and sticks.

After the assailants fled, Thapar’s friends took him to Holy Family Hospital; doctors there referred him to Apollo Hospital. According to the police, the youth’s local guardians later shifted him to a private hospital in East Delhi.

A senior officer said Thapar has complained that on Saturday night he had had a fight with a senior — a postgraduate student of Transport Planning called Rakesh Kumar — in the parking lot outside the college campus at ITO. “The senior allegedly threatened him,” the officer said. “In his complaint, Thapar identified two others involved: Malik and Ravi.”

A case has been registered against the trio at New Friends Colony police station, the officer said.

According to the officer, they are verifying claims that the assailants were carrying countrymade pistols. As of now, officials said, the police are proceeding with the assumption that barring the trio, the other assailants are outsiders.

On Saturday, many of Thapar’s friends demanded that the identified trio be rusticated from college. They also claimed that they are afraid of meeting a similar fate unless strict action is taken against anyone found guilty.

One student said, “We are afraid to even venture out, for we saw some unfamiliar faces outside our college.”