Eight students charged with attempt to murder have been taken into custody.
Hyderabad:
A law student was beaten up and allegedly forced to chant religion slogans by a group of students at his hostel room in Hyderabad, a video of which has gone viral.
Himank Bansal, a third-year student at ICFAI Foundation for Higher Education (IFHE) in Hyderabad, was slapped, kicked and had his hands twisted, the video showed. He is also heard chanting “Jai Mata Di” and “Allahu Akbar” slogans, as the accused continued beating him.
“We want to fix his ideology. We will beat him into coma and he will remember a whole new world,” an accused said. One of them snatched his wallet and told another, “Take all the money you want.”
Eight of the total 12 students, including a minor, charged with attempt to murder have been taken into custody. The remaining seven are on the run. All of them have been suspended by the business school. Five people in the college’s management have been ordered to appear before the police.
The incident occurred on November 1 after Himank made comments against the Prophet on social media. A case was registered after he approached the police and filed a complaint stating that he was physically and sexually assaulted, said police.
In his complaint, he also alleged that the students threatened to beat him to death if he didn’t take his trousers off.
Himank also tweeted the incident, tagging Telangana minister KT Rama Rao and the Cyderabad Police Commissioner.
The business school, in a statement, said it has “zero tolerance towards such undesirable acts”. The institution said “they had acted with alacrity and taken a decision to suspend all 12 concerned students” involved in the incident.
The BJP has demanded a proper investigation into the matter and slammed the K Chandrashekhar Rao-led Telangana government for not taking immediate action. “It is not about religion here. It is pseudo-secularism where such provocative incidents go unnoticed,” BJP leader Rachana Reddy told news agency ANI.
