Patna, Dec. 27: A few hours after a late night liquor session with two CRPF jawans and an unidentified person in his room, a 25-year-old student of Patna University was found dead this morning at an abandoned mess of Saidpur Hostel Number-2.

Police suspect the youth was strangled to death in his room. His body was abandoned in the mess later. Three persons, including one of the CRPF jawans, Ashok Yadav, have been detained.

An MA first-year student of ancient history and archaeology, the victim — Dilip Kumar — was not a bona fide resident of the hostel. He illegally occupied room no. 33 of the hostel like its several other occupants.

Dilip allegedly had an affair with a 17-year-old girl illegally staying in the hostel with her grandfather, popular as Masterji among students. Masterji, sources said, did not like it. He instead allowed Yadav and a few other CRPF personnel sexually exploit the girl in lieu of money. Dilip vehemently opposed it.

The residents of Saidpur Hostel Number-2 claimed that either Masterji instigated the CRPF jawans to kill Dilip or the central paramilitary force personnel themselves eliminated him to have a free access to the girl.

Masterji and the girl are being interrogated.

Deputy superintendent of police (Patna City) Sushil Kumar told The Telegraph that the boy had a party in his hostel room with three others.

“According to information, one of them was Yadav. The party started around 10pm and liquor flowed. After around an hour, the jawans returned to their camp on the premises of Moin-ul-Haq Stadium, just a kilometre away. Until midnight, the other boarders of the hostel heard Dilip screaming under heavy influence of liquor. A boarder found his body this morning around 8 while going to the toilet near the abandoned mess,” the officer said.

Dilip’s body did not have any external injury mark. “He was strangled to death and dragged to this spot. His body was kept under a rack. The police have found some marks of dragging the body on the floor, suggesting that he was killed in his room and his body was dragged to the mess. A team of forensic experts are analysing the clues,” the DSP said.

Another officer said: “The police have detained Yadav, the girl and her grandfather for interrogation. We are trying to locate the others,” another officer pointed out.

After the body of Dilip was spotted this morning, a group of students marched to the CRPF camp shouting slogans against the jawans. They also allegedly pelted stones at the tents of CRPF personnel. Some jawans stormed into the hostel campus with sticks in retaliation. The police had to intervene to bring the situation under control.

Later in the day, Patna University vice-chancellor Sambhu Nath Singh visited the hostel. “It is a sad incident. The university will conducts its own investigation to find out what had happened,” he said.

The death of Dilip exposes the vulnerability of the occupants of the Patna University hostels. There is hardly any security and check on illegal occupants.

“Anybody can check into a room and become a boarder. Dilip was one such illegal resident of Saidpur Hostel Number-2,” a bona fide resident of the hostel said.