Following an incident of a second-year B Tech mechanical engineering student allegedly harassing and teasing a final year female law student, on the evening of November 23, the law student and her batchmates protested at the B Tech hostel, demanding an apology. The accused, Rakesh Rathod, had to come out of his hostel and apologise
Bhubaneswar: On Saturday, after simmering tensions over lewd comments passed at a female student the previous day, violent clashes broke out between the law school and the engineering department students of Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT) in Bhubaneswar.
Following an incident of a second-year B Tech mechanical engineering student allegedly harassing and teasing a final year female law student, on the evening of November 23, the law student and her batchmates protested at the B Tech hostel, demanding an apology. The accused, Rakesh Rathod, had to come out of his hostel and apologise.
Brutality with students of KiiT Law School Bhubaneswar. First a girl student was molested and when protested by the law students, they were mercilessly beaten and injured. pic.twitter.com/jN2CntCPc0
— Piyush Singh (@vakeelPiyush)And the next day itself, hundreds of engineering students reportedly entered the law school with an intention to damage the premises and cause harm to the students. They had beer bottles, sticks, bats, stones and even knives with them.
See the brutality by which law students of KIIT UNIVERSITY are treated by engineering students. The students in the lift are law students who have been brutally beaten up.
Shame!!!
Extremely inhuman and insane behavior. pic.twitter.com/YRBZzn6kDn
The incident continued for over an hour and unaware law students were brutally assaulted even in the hostels, according to Arguendo, a civilian activism platform. As the word spread and the violence broke out into a full-fledged riot, panic soon spread to the locals as well.
According to Odisha Bytes, the vehicular traffic between Big Bazaar Square and Sikharchandi was disrupted during the clash.
Amongst other students and ex-students of the college who took to social media to bring to light the otherwise uncovered event by mainstream media, Bhadra Mahapatra wrote: “The name of the molester (because of whom the whole incident started) is Rakesh Rathore...”
Over 40 students (both law and B Tech) have been hospitalised with at least one student being in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) with a serious head injury, as per several reports by the students and the alumni of the college. Within the WhatsApp groups of the college, both sides are alleging that the violence was initiated by the other side first.
Another serious matter well suppressed by ashamed to be a part of this pathetic institution. pic.twitter.com/IKFZwdxCrB
— The RRS (@iEmRRS)Clash between law students and engineering students inside
students pic.twitter.com/IF1PBfUq0Q
Riots created by engineering students IN KIIT Bhubneswar, LAW students injured in the attack. pic.twitter.com/Hf1og8fsJT
— Sandhya Jalan (@JalanHeena)Section 144 had been imposed on the campus and the State Reserved Protection Force (SRPF) was deployed by Saturday night to take control of the situation after one and a half hours.
According to Arguendo, FIR No 203/18 has been lodged with the Infocity Police Station.
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