Indian School of Mines (ISM)-Dhanbad has punished 11 BTech students for the alleged assault on three first-year students at a boys' hostel on August 23, sending a stern message against campus violence but refused to dub the incident as ragging.

The premier mining cradle, which has been vying for IIT status for long, rusticated four second-year students for two semesters (effectively a year) on Tuesday for beating up juniors and slapped a fine of Rs 10,000 each on six others, also in second year, who witnessed the assault but did not intervene.

ISM also debarred a final-year student from appearing in campus placements for a year and expelled him from the student coordination group, which is meant to resolve students' issues, as he had failed to report the incident to the authorities despite being in the know of it.

The actions were taken after an internal inquiry found the 11 guilty of their respective offences.

Although the assault took place on August 23, ISM authoriities got a whiff of it only on August 30 when chairman Dhanush Dhari Mishra received an anonymous text message in New Delhi requesting him to take action against the guilty.

Confirming the incident and the consequent action, ISM registrar Col (retd) M.K. Singh said: "The main action was taken against four second-year students for beating up the first-year students and one final-year student, who did not inform the institute about the incident despite being a part of the student coordination group."

Dean of students' welfare Chandan Bhar maintained that a committee of five senior teachers and deans deliberated on the inquiry committee's report at a meeting on Tuesday.

He, however, refused to classify the incident as ragging, referring to the assault as a clash of supremacy between two groups of students of two batches.

Asked why ISM authorities hadn't approached police, Bhar said: "The decisions announced on Tuesday had been discussed before a larger committee of the institute comprising local police, district officials and ISM teachers. The matter is already in the knowledge of the police."

ISM sources said most of the victims and the accused were students of mining engineering and from Andhra Pradesh.

"The incident took place in the evening of August 23, when the four second-year students of mining engineering called the first-year students, who stay at Jasper hostel, to Amber hostel. They scolded the juniors and beat them up for not showing respect towards them. Six other second-year students were present but remained mute spectators," said a senior teacher, requesting anonymity.

Is ISM right not to dub the incident as ragging? Tell ttkhand@abpmail.com