Uttar Pradesh student who was found unconscious hospitalised

Lucknow: A first-year engineering student in Uttar Pradesh's Kanpur district was hospitalised after an alleged hazing incident and assault by his seniors because he declined to mouth abusive words, police said yesterday.

Rajanshu, a B.Tech. student of the Pranveer Singh Institute of Technology, was allegedly ill-treated by a group of seniors inside his hostel room on the campus on Sunday for not using expletives during his introduction. He was hospitalised in the evening by some of his batchmates, who found him lying unconscious inside his room.

A case against unidentified students was registered late on Sunday by the police.

"According to Rajanshu, four senior students physically abused him for defying their order to use objectionable words while introducing himself to a group of senior students," police inspector P.K. Pandey told reporters in Kanpur, some 80km from Lucknow.

"Rajanshu, who took admission in the college earlier this month, failed to identify the seniors by their names. So we have registered a case against unidentified students," he added.

Police and college officials have launched a joint inquiry into the incident to gather information about those involved in the assault on Rajanshu, who hails from Aligarh.