Durgapur, Sept. 9: Over 100 students of the National Institute of Technology in Durgapur beat up waiters of a restaurant where some of them had gone for dinner, broke furniture and hurled stones at police after an alleged drunken brawl over a glass last night.

NIT denied the students were drunk. The institute, however, has ordered an internal inquiry into the incident at the restaurant located inside a mall.

Ten of the students have been arrested and charged with voluntarily causing hurt, obstructing a public servant from discharging functions and other offences. They were sent to jail custody till tomorrow by a Durgapur court.

Sunil Yadav, the additional deputy commissioner of police (east), said: “Some students who had gone to the restaurant for having food and liquor got involved in a brawl with the waiters there. They beat up private guards at the mall and attacked police when they intervened. We arrested 10 students.”

The NIT, a premier engineering institute that attracts students from across the country, denied the youths were drunk.

“Some of our students had gone to a nearby mall to have dinner last evening. They got involved in an argument with the waiters and guards. I heard some of them attacked the police. But the police, too, resorted to a lathicharge during which many of our students were injured. Our disciplinary committee will inquire into all this,” said NIT director Tarakeswar Kumar.

The police denied they had resorted to a baton-charge. “We chased them away but there was no lathicharge. They were unruly and drunk,” Yadav said.

The trouble started around 10pm at the Mehaq-e-Punjab restaurant where a group of five students, including a girl, had gone for dinner.

According to waiters, the boys were drinking beer and the girl, a soft drink.

“All of them were NIT students who often visit our restaurant. One of the boys called me and said the girl with them wanted to take home the glass in which she was having the soft drink. I told them that taking home restaurant property was not allowed. But they started arguing,” said waiter Pulak Mal, who was injured in the brawl and hospitalised.

Seeing the youths get into an argument with the waiter, the bar manager intervened. “I saw one of the boys slipping the glass into his pocket. I told them that taking the glass away would amount to stealing,” said Somnath Ghosh, the manager.

The student allegedly slapped Ghosh on being challenged. Two waiters who intervened were also beaten up, the restaurant said.

According to sources, the students then called up their friends from the hostel on the NIT campus, 300m away. A group of 100-odd students came from the institute and went on a rampage at the restaurant, the sources said.

“They beat us up and ransacked the bar. Glasses and liquor bottles were broken and the furniture overturned,” said Ghosh, who has been hospitalised.

The group then allegedly attacked the security supervisor of the mall and other guards when they intervened.

“The were throwing away flower pots and destroying mall property. We tried to pacify them but to no avail. Instead, they attacked us,’ said Shyamal De, the security supervisor.

A team rushed from the nearby police station and chased away the students. But they allegedly retaliated with bricks and stones, injuring a few policemen.

“Six policemen were injured. They have been admitted to hospital. The students also damaged one of our vehicles,” Yadav said.