CIT students show their injuries. Pix by Ashok Karan

Ranchi, April 19: A group of 20 boarders of the Cambridge Institute of Technology (CIT) faced police lathicharge last night on the campus with four having to spend the night at Tatisilwai police station, allegedly, along with more baton charges.

While Rakesh (a mechanical, fourth-year student) has a swollen wound in his ear after reportedly being hit by a torch, Sourav (mechanical, fourth-year) can hardly sit around with bruises all over.

Both were taken home by their parents today while Vikas Kumar (a mechanical, third-year student) and Ankit (computer science) are still at their hostels.

According to the students, the problem started at the canteen where a group of students were chatting.

?The canteen guard suddenly came up to us and asked us to leave the spot. We told him we would move off within a few minutes but he refused to listen. This started a fight, minutes after which the guard walked off to the police station where he lodged a complaint that he was thrashed by us,? claimed one of the students.

Within 25 minutes, a police jeep entered the hostel and, according to the students, the men did not even ask questions before getting off the vehicle and starting to beat the students.

For the four picked by the police, the horror continued till early morning.

?My friend was bashed so badly that he cannot move,? recalled Rakesh, showing his cut in the ear.

The four were released today after the institute?s students wrote an application and the management got in touch with the superintendent of police (city).

Angry students, meanwhile, threatened to block the NH-33 tomorrow, if action was not taken against Indu Shekhar Jha, the officer in-charge, and R.D. Singh, one of the sub-inspectors.

Asked about the incident, Jha denied the allegations, stating he had only acted upon an FIR lodged by the canteen guard who had been beaten by the students.

?There is a student in the hostel named Vikas. He got into a fight with the canteen guard and beat him up. Other students also followed. We never beat them inside the lock up,? said the officer in-charge.

Meanwhile, Bahadur Singh, the director of institute, said: ?The management is investigating the matter and action will be taken.?