A violent assault on a postgraduate student from Assam at a central university campus in Madhya Pradesh has triggered political attention and police action, with chief minister Mohan Yadav saying the guilty will not be spared.

The incident took place around 4 pm on Tuesday at the Indira Gandhi National Tribal University (IGNTU) hostel in Amarkantak, where Hiros Jyoti Das, a 22-year-old postgraduate student, was allegedly assaulted by five fellow students.

An FIR was registered shortly before midnight on Wednesday based on Das’s complaint. In a post on X, Yadav said police had acted on the matter.

“The university administration has also taken action at its level against the accused students. No one will be spared,” the chief minister said.

Police have since invoked a non-bailable provision after medical evidence pointed to serious injuries.

The Medical Legal Certificate revealed injuries to Das’s nose and the region below his eyes, following which section 114 (causing grievous injury) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) was added to the case, Anuppur Superintendent of Police Moti-ur-Rehman told PTI.

At the time the FIR was registered, the accused were booked under sections 115(2) (voluntarily causing hurt), 296 (obscene acts and words), 351(3) (criminal intimidation) and 3(5) (common intention) of the BNS. With the addition of section 114, the case now includes a non-bailable offence carrying a maximum punishment of seven years in jail, the SP said.

According to the police, the investigation so far suggests the accused questioned the student about his place of origin before the assault.

“As per the investigation so far, the accused asked the student where he was from before the assault took place and no racial remarks were made,” Moti-ur-Rehman said.

Das, however, alleged in his complaint that he was targeted while returning to his hostel room from the washroom. He said that the accused questioned him about his place of origin and his presence at the university before attacking him.

He named Anurag Pande, Jatin Singh, Rajnish Tripathi, Vishal Yadav and Utkarsh Singh as the attackers.

Earlier on Saturday, Amarkantak police station house officer Lal Bahadur Tiwari told PTI that all five accused students had either fled or returned to their homes in Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.

Attempts to reach Das and IGNTU Registrar Professor N S Hari Narayana Moorthy for comment were unsuccessful.

The assault has come at a time when violence against students from the Northeast has drawn national attention.

The incident follows the death of Anjel Chakma, a 24-year-old final-year MBA student from Tripura, who was allegedly attacked with a knife at a private university in Dehradun, Uttarakhand, on December 9.

Chakma died on December 26 after being under treatment for 17 days, sparking outrage across the country.

With a non-bailable charge now in place and the accused out of station, the focus remains on the police manhunt and the response of university authorities in the days ahead.