The incident occurred when 30 college students, mostly from the first year, were on their way back to Delhi in their college bus after attending classes.

According to the students, six assailants on two motorbikes stopped the bus at a secluded spot around 10 km from the institute. “The assailants had their faces covered and were armed with country-made pistols and lathis,” said one of the students. The bikers had been following the bus from the institute itself and had also removed the number plates.

Among the injured students are Arun Dhankhar, Ankit Gaur (first-year students in electronics and communication), Manoj Yadav and Shikhar Verma (both mechanical engineering students).

Vedpal Dhankhar, father of Arun, said the armed men stopped the bus and started smashing the windshields. “They broke the windows and beat up the driver. After that, they boarded the bus and attacked four students sitting in the front row of the bus with lathis. When the other students raised an alarm, the assailants snatched a gold chain and a mobile phone from the students and fled.”

“Arun revealed that the masked men reportedly told them: ‘seniors se panga lene ka natija hai’. My son has, however, never mentioned any form of ragging faced by first-years in his college,” said Vedpal.

Students, meanwhile, said that one of the injured students, Manoj, a resident of Karol Bagh, had a tiff with a second-year student on Monday. When questioned, Manoj said: “There was some misunderstanding with a senior, but it is not possible that he would do something so extreme to settle scores. Also, we had cleared out our differences on Monday itself.”

When asked whether this was a case of ragging, he added: “We have never been ragged by any senior. These men appeared to be criminal elements and the attack seemed well-planned by the way it was executed. Our classes got over at 3.40 pm and our bus left the college at 4 pm sharp and took the usual route. The incident took place around 4.20 pm 10 km from the institute.”

Students said their medical expenses were being taken care of by their college. Attempts to contact the college authorities, however, proved futile.