IIT-M students seek justice for protester

With the IIT Madras management refusing to act against the attackers of scholar R Sooraj, students continued to protest for the second day on Thursday and complained to the Chennai City Police Commissioner seeking action the eight right-wing students indulged in the attack.

The students are demanding expulsion of all the eight students for brutally attacking Sooraj — a PhD scholar from the Department of Aerospace — for taking part in the beef fest held on the campus on Sunday. However, IIT-Madras director Bhaskar Ramamurthi only gave an oral assurance to the protesting students that an inquiry committee would be formed to probe the issue and assured to reimburse the medical expense of Sooraj.

On Thursday morning, the students staged protest seeking justice for Sooraj. The students organised a rally to the Director's residence from the campus in the morning. But Mr Ramamurthi agreed to meet only in the afternoon.

To counter the social media campaign in support of the attackers, Sooraj's friends released a video of Manish, the prime accused, hanging out with his friends in IIT clinic where severely injured Sooraj was taken for treatment. "The footage clearly shows Manish walking around on Tuesday with no signs of injury. But on Wednesday he is confined to a hospital bed with a fractured hand," Sooraj's friend pointed out. Two IIT students Swaminathan and Arjun Jayakumar filed separate complaints against Manish.