Bolpur (Bengal), Dec. 21: Two juniors of Nishant Kiran today said they had seen from the window a group armed with iron rods trying to break the gate of the Bolpur house, where the Bihar boy used to stay with his engineering college mates.

Nishant ( 22), who was a third-year engineering student of a private college in Bolpur town in Bengal, was dragged out of the flat he shared with friends and beaten to death, allegedly in a sequel to a campus rivalry.

The two boys, one in first year and the other in second at the Bengal Institute of Technology and Management (BITM), added that they tried to wake up Nishant, a third-year student of the college, but he was too drunk to move after a birthday party in the house in Bolpur town, 160km west of Calcutta, on Saturday night.

The two boys, also from Bihar like Nishant, said they hid with a third college friend by lying down beside a water tank on the terrace. From upstairs, they heard Nishant screaming and heard the attackers leave on their bikes.

When they scampered down to the ground floor after over an hour, Nishant was not in the room. Also missing were their cellphones, laptops and clothes that had been lying around.

Nishant's father, Ashok Sharma, reached Bolpur police station at 12.30am on Monday and lodged a murder complaint against unknown persons.

He took his son's body away to their ancestral home in Giridih around 4am. Sharma said over the phone: "I have lodged a murder complaint and requested the police to arrest the real culprits and punish them. Now, I am taking my son to Giridih, my ancestral home."

On Sunday morning, Nishant was found dead outside the Bolpur block hospital, after being dragged out of the house and being beaten in what is suspected to be a sequel to a campus rivalry. The third boy who was in the house when the attackers came is a third-year student of diploma engineering. He could not be contacted. The three boys stay in another rented house not far from where Nishant, the 22-year-old from Patna, stayed.

They were in Nishant's room with seven others to celebrate a friend's birthday that wound up in the early hours of Sunday. Six of the boys left the house and some wanted to see off a friend at Bolpur station.

"We did not drink at the birthday party," said one of the two boys The Telegraph spoke to. "Nishant bhaiya was sleeping after vomiting twice as he had a drink too many. Around 1.30am, one of our seniors, who had gone out with some students after the party to see off a college mate at the station, called me up and told me to lock the door and be careful. A rival group of students had beaten them up and threatened to attack the flat," he said.

"After that call, we put one more lock on the grille gate for our safety," he added. The first-year engineering student said after some time when they peeped through a window, they saw "about 20 students of our college led by an outsider arrive on bikes. They started to bang on the grille, shouting and demanding that we come out. Then, using their iron rods they tried to yank open the lock. They shouted that if we did not go out, they would kill us."

The boy said they tried to wake up Nishant, but could not.

"We told him we would hide on the terrace. We tried to carry him, but could not. By then, the attackers had broken the lock of the grille gate outside. So, the three of us ran up the stairs to the terrace."

They said some of the attackers climbed the stairs to the terrace, but did not see the three as they were lying behind a water tank.

"They searched the terrace but did not find us. They climbed down shouting obscenities. Then, we heard Nishant bhaiya's screams and some noise. The boys left after about 15 minutes. We suspected Nishant bhaiya was beaten up," the student said.

A senior police officer in Bolpur said: "We have got a few names of students and the outsider. But all of them are untraceable. We have not arrested anyone so far." The college authorities said they have formed a special committee to monitor students residing outside the campus.