Kesab Behera, the injured sub-inspector, at the Ispat General Hospital in Rourkela. Picture by Uttam Kumar Pal

Rourkela, April 16: Five students of the prestigious National Institute of Technology, Rourkela, (NITR) allegedly created a ruckus in a drunken state and assaulted a policeman. The students have been taken into custody.

The five students — Ankur Mina, Bibek Mishra, Ankit Singh, Sudhansu Tulip and Dipansu Singh — are all final-year students.

An eyewitness said the group had been on a drinking binge at the Pantha Nivas bar late into the night. They only left the premises after the authorities told them to.

However, they could not find any vehicle on Hamirpur Main Road to take them back to their hostel. They tried to stop all the vehicles passing through the area, but no one stopped seeing them in a drunken state. This infuriated them and they started accosting passers-by. Kesab Behera, a sub-inspector with the Sector-15 police station, was in plainclothes when he was passing by. He tried to stop the students from obstructing traffic on the main road.

Some of the onlookers and staff of Pantha Nivas said the youths they were in no mood to listen. Instead, they began demanding that Behera ferry them to their hostel on his bike.

“This led to an altercation and suddenly, the youths assaulted him and threw him on the ground before he could react,” said a bartender of the government-run hotel.

“They were not in their senses and they thrashed the policeman,” he said.

A night patrol team reached the spot and took the youths to Sector-7 police station.

Behera, who was severely injured, was taken to Ispat General Hospital. Director of the hospital Saroj Mishra said both Behera’s arms were fractured in the assault. However, his condition is reported to be stable and there are no other injuries on his body.

The accused students have been booked under sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 325 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt), 341 (wrongful restraint), 435 (mischief by fire or explosive substance with intent to cause damage) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code. The students later got bail from a local court.

National Institute of Technology director Sunil Sadangi said: “We have asked the police to let the law take its course.”

Besides, an internal committee of the institute will probe the matter. “We are yet to talk to the students. Action will be taken only after we get the facts,” said Sadangi.