Hazaribagh, Sept. 25: Students of Markham College today beat up a classmate and later handed him over to the police for cheating them.

The FIR lodged by the students said Satyendra Prasad Swarnkar, a resident of Devkuli in Ichaak, had taken Rs 10,000 from each of them on the pretext of getting them government jobs. He told them that he had got a government job with a salary of Rs 6,200. He said his job gave him the authority to employ people. But he demanded Rs 10,000 for the favour.

Santosh Kumar, who lodged the FIR, said he paid Rs 1,000 in advance five months ago and gave the rest in instalments. He was told that he would be sent for training. Satyendra gave him an identity card and asked him to sign a form. Satyendra did the same with eight other students, including Rameshwar Mahto, Shankar Mahto, Manoj Kumar and Naresh Kumar. He had been carrying on this racket for almost five months.

The students soon realised that they had been duped. Today they stormed into a students’ hostel and caught Satyendra red-handed, taking money from another student. They beat him up before handing him over to the police. Police recovered two identity cards and a register marked “Dowry department, Jharkhand Government”, which contained the 121 names.

Knife scare: A girl, brandishing a knife, threatened to kill another girl her age at Women’s College today. Police had to intervene take the girl away.

Eyewitnesses said Sudha Kumari and Manisha Singh started quarrelling on the college premises.Manisha, suddenly, pulled out a knife from her pocket and threatened to kill Sudha. College authorities informed the police who took away Manisha to the police station.

She told the police that she was not a student of the college but used to go there to make friends. She was released after signing a bond that she would visit the college again.