Hostel Brawl Leaves Many Cotton University Students Injured After Union Results Announced

Guwahati: Blows were exchanged between two groups of hostellers of Cotton University here late night on Wednesday after results for Cotton University Students’ Union (CUSU) were announced, leaving dozens of students injured. It is believed that the majority of hostellers were inebriated and used sticks to beat each other up and also vandalised university property.

As reported by The Sentinel, Sudhir Das, a hosteller of the Mahendra Nath Deka Phukan (MNDP) Hostel has lodged a complaint alleging that some hostellers of the Sitanath Brahma Choudhury (SNBC) Hostel attacked him and fellow hostellers with sticks and also pelted stones at them and their hostel. Das' FIR claimed that more than 15 hostellers of the MNDP Hostel were injured in the attack and that one of them, Pragyan Pratim Bora, has had to be admitted to the Gauhati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) with critical injuries.

On the other hand, Deeepjyoti Baishya, a hosteller of the SNBC Hostel also lodged an FIR at the same police station, alleging that some hostellers of the MNDP Hostel had attacked him and fellow hostellers with sticks and also pelted stones at them and their hostel, leaving many of them injured.

In lieu of the complaints, the Panbazar Police Station has registered cases on both groups.

Meanwhile, G Plus, a city media organisation reports that hostellers have been claiming that the police were too rough on the students. When G Plus reached out to the Panbazar Police Station, a senior official denied the charges and claimed that the students were totally out of order. “Since morning we had allocated a police force to manage the elections. Everything went well and we even gave them a bit of leeway to celebrate till 10:30 PM. But they started to fight among themselves and we had to stop them. The police eventually had to lathi-charge to stop the fight because they were not listening to us,” the official added.

Earlier, in the elections held, Abhishek Mahanta of Satra Mukti Sangra Samiti (SMSS) won the General Secretary post of CUSU by a margin of 356 votes, receiving a total of 1,359 votes. Niyor Deka of ACP won the President’s post and Heena Dewri bagged the post of Vice President. A total of 45 candidates contested the election for 16 posts.

Cotton University (previously Cotton College) is a public state university. Cotton College State University and Cotton College were amalgamated in 2017 under the requirements of an Act passed by the Assam Legislative Assembly.

The University has risen to become one of the country's top 200 institutions (ranking in the 150–200 range in the National Institutional Ranking Framework in May 2020).