Case against 8 IIT Madras students for attacking a PhD scholar over beef fest

Chennai police have booked eight IIT Madras students for attacking PhD scholar Sooraj, and an FIR has been registered under four sections.

Manish Kumar Singh and seven others have been booked under Sections 147 (rioting), 341 (wrongful restraint), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 506(1) (criminal intimidation).

Sooraj also has been booked under sections 324 (voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons) and 341 (wrongful restraint), based on Manish Kumar's complaint. Manish had alleged that Suraj assaulted him and his hand was injured in the attack.

Meanwhile, IIT Madras has ordered a probe into the clash between two students over the beef fest.

An IIT Madras spokesperson said that appropriate action will be taken after an enquiry. He added that it was an altercation between two students in which both suffered injury and were given first aid.

On Tuesday afternoon, PhD scholar Sooraj R, from IIT Madras, was allegedly attacked by a group of eight students belonging to a right wing group for participating in a beef fest held on May 28.

He was seriously injured in his right eye and has been admitted to Sankara Nethralaya Eye Hospital in Nungambakkam.

Read: IIT-Madras scholar who joined campus beef fest attacked, allegedly by right wing student

Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan has reacted strongly to the incident. In a Facebook post, he said, “Condemn the attack on Suraj, a Malayali PhD student of Aerospace Engineering at IIT Madras, for having participated in the beef fest. It is unfortunate that a young man’s eye has been thrashed for merely eating beef. Our constitution gives us the right to consume whatever food we like to. Intolerance towards it is in fact intolerance towards our constitution itself. Will request the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu to take necessary action in this incident. #BeefBan”