Bhubaneswar, Jan. 13: Utkal University authorities held a peace committee meeting today to solve the dispute between two groups of students, who had recently locked horns on the varsity campus.

'All of them have unanimously agreed to establish peace and harmony on the campus to maintain a healthy academic atmosphere,' said postgraduate council chairman G.K. Panda.

The two groups - one supported by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and the other by the Biju Chhatra Janata Dal (BCJD) - had clashed on the issue of the presence of non-students inside the varsity hostels.

While the BCJD members were having a discussion with Panda regarding the matter, students the other group had barged in and started a heated argument. The incident had left Manas Sahoo, the ABVP presidential nominee in the last students' union elections, injured.

The varsity disciplinary committee had expelled Sanjay Mullick for his involvement in the violence.

On January 9, the ABVP members hadstaged a demonstration in front of the governor's house, seeking arrest of those involved in the attack on Sahoo. They had also sought revocation of Mullick's expulsion order. The peace committee, however, did not consider immediate revocation of the expulsion order till today.

The ABVP members also sought removal of non-students from the varsity hostels and transfer of Saheed Nagar police station inspector-in-charge for his alleged bias towards the BCJD members.

'If our demands are not met, we will be forced to resort to a mass agitation,' ABVP state secretary Pramod Rout said.

The students' union president Rajesh Rah Swain and general secretary Suryakant Sahoo, of the BCJD, demanded a high-level probe into the incident.

'The ABVP members are frustrated because of their defeat in the union polls. They are levelling baseless allegations. We demand a high-level inquiry, so that the truth comes out,' Swain said.

However, the agitation has stopped on the campus after the peace meeting.

A senior varsity official said that a day after the incident, the disciplinary committee had given a fair chance to Mullick to explain himself.

'In his explanation, the student refused to admit to his mistake and denied any wrongdoing. The varsity expelled him, as the postgraduate council found his explanations unsatisfactory. He should now apply for a revocation through a proper forum,' said the official.