Patna/Motihari: East Champaran police on Saturday arrested Jitendra Giri for his alleged involvement in the assault on an assistant professor of sociology at the Mahatma Gandhi Central University in Motihari on Friday.

Sanjay Kumar, a Jawaharlal Nehru Univesity (JNU) alumnus, is undergoing treatment at the Patna Medical College and Hospital. Motihari town police station house officer (SHO) Anand Kumar said Giri, a students' union leader of the Central University, was arrested from near the police station on Saturday. He is among 12 persons named as accused in the FIR lodged on Sanjay's statement.

The SHO said raids were underway to nab the other accused - Sanjay Kumar Singh, Pawnesh Kumar, Aman Bihari Vajpayee, Ravikesh Mishra, Gyaneshwar Gautam, Sunny Vajpayee, Vinesh Vyas, Rahul R. Pandey, Purushottam Mishra, Shankar Kumar Singh and Diwakar Kumar Singh.

The local sadar hospital report said no serious injury was found on Sanjay. But Sanjay was referred to PMCH on his request for better treatment.

Motihari additional superintendent of police Murli Manohar Manjhi said Sanjay was attacked when he was giving tuition to students at his Azad Nagar rented house. Some 20-25 persons dragged him out and thrashed him. His clothes were torn and he suffered injuries around his neck and knee.

He identified a few of the attackers in the police complaint. The attackers allegedly tried to pour petrol on him and torch him and threatened to teach him a lesson if he spoke against the vice chancellor (Arvind Agrawal), associate professor Pavnesh Kumar, assistant professor Dinesh Vyas, Gyaneshwar Gautam and Sanjay Kumar Singh. Sanjay attributed the attack on him to a comment he posted on social media on former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee following his death. He said Sanjay Kumar Singh, bureau chief of a vernacular daily in Motihari, got furious over the comment and incited the mob to attack him. Rakesh Pandey and Jitendra Giri joined Singh in hatching the plan to kill him, he said in the FIR.

Newly elected RJD Rajya Sabha MP Prof Manoj Kumar Jha has written to Union human resource minister Prakash Javedkar seeking his intervention. Jha said Saturday's incident was a manifestation of complaints of financial irregularities against the vice chancellor. He said many teachers had lost their job for opposing the VC's highhandedness.