Rourkela: Child welfare committee officials, who investigated into the inmate thrashing incident at the hostel of Uditnagar Government High School, found the hostel cook guilty of the incident.

A complaint was earlier lodged at Uditnagar police station in this regard.

Child welfare committee officials R.C. Behera and Randhir Lenka conducted the preliminary investigation and found cook Bipin Kissan to be guilty in the assault case. "After interacting with the students, we came to know that Kissan was involved in several such cases of assault. Action will be taken against him," said Lenka.

Kissan, who is absconding, has been reported to be a serial offender. Kissan had allegedly beaten up five hostel inmates with stick for playing games on their mobile phones. One of the students had received severe injury on his right elbow.

A hostel inmate said: "The mobiles belonged to the students and the cook had no authority to bar them from using or playing with their own gadgets. But, he behaved as if he was their guardian and beat them up."