Students of Patna Medical College have taken to social media to show solidarity with the postgraduate student of the college Alok Kumar who had a scuffle with college principal S.N. Sinha following which both the parties lodged cases against each other.

They are uploading videos of the incident on Facebook in which principal Sinha is seen scolding and slapping the student after he did not seem satisfied with his answer when quizzed about the reason of parking his vehicle in the barricaded area in front of the hospital's emergency wing.

The postgraduate students (junior doctors) of PMCH went on strike on Wednesday following the incident. However, they called off the strike the very next day while giving a 48-hour ultimatum to the government to take action against Sinha else they would go on strike again. Sinha had issued a showcause notice to Alok on the same day when incident occurred to explain his point within four days.

"Social media has become a key tool in spreading the word. The reason we decided to take out the whole incident on social media because we felt that the actual incident is not coming out in front of everyone. You can clearly see in the video that principal Sir first slapped our senior and also hurled abuses following which our senior lost his cool and manhandled the principal. The fight was started from principal's side. If he found anything wrong, he could have handed over our senior to the security guard or police. There was no need of slapping him and hurling abuses," said a final year MBBS student preferring anonymity, who has posted the video on her Facebook timeline with the message #SaveThe Doctors.

A postgraduate student of the anaesthesia department, said: "The tympanic membrane (eardrum) of Alok's left ear has been ruptured. Doctors have to check for the next 15 days whether his injuries are going to heal or not. In case it does not, an implant surgery would be required. Principal Sir was not supposed to take up policing in his hands."

Some students, while sharing the post have requested their peers to share the video as much while another student has commented: "This principal has no principle. Doctors should check his BP and suggest to take VRS. Ye Bhi Koi Tarika Hai Samjhane Ka? (is this the way out to make one understand)."

Sinha admitted that he scolded the student and slapped him but said the student remained undisciplined in his approach as he did not even care to alight from his bike when Sinha questioned him. "I accept that I beat him up and also scolded him but what he did in return, he came back and hit me. Have they forgotten to respect their teacher? Do we not have right to scold or slap our students but I am still ready to speak to my students. I don't want this matter to aggravate further and our college earn bad name due to the whole incident," he said.