IIT Madras beef fest attack: Beaten up Keralite student pleads for justice in Facebook video
- Sooraj R was attacked by a group for participating in a beef fest held at the IIT Madras campus
- The Keralite was admitted to a private hospital after scans revealed injuries to his right eye and face
- Students, who are holding protests against the attack, have filed a complaint to the administration
- They want the attackers to be expelled and Sooraj's medical expenses to be taken care of
FollowThe friends of a PhD scholar at IIT Madras, who was attacked by a group of students for participating in a beef fest, have now posted a video of him from the hospital where he describes the brutal assault on him.
Sooraj R, a research scholar from the department of aerospace engineering, sustained severe injuries after he was assaulted on Tuesday. He was attacked by a group students, who are allegedly part of a right-wing group, for attending a beef festival held in the campus on Sunday to protest the Centre's order banning the sale of cattle for slaughter.
In the video, a bedridden Sooraj explains what exactly happened. Sooraj says that a group of seven or eight students rounded up him and a research colleague at the college mess during lunch hours on 30 May 2017. One of the students, identified as Manish Kumar Singh, sat next to Sooraj and started asking him his name and other personal details.Â
Also read:Â IIT Madras brings out a massive rally to protest the brutal attack on organiser
Following this, Manish began questioning Sooraj as to whether he had eaten beef at the fest two days before. When the reply in the affirmative, Manish got very agitated and brutally attacked Sooraj with a blow to the back of his head. The group, which had accompanied Manish, held Sooraj back and while the others restrained Anoop to make sure he couldn’t intervene. Manish pulled Sooraj by the hair and punched hom on the his face repeatedly. Manish was yelling expletives and warned that he would kill anyone who ate beef.
The video ends with Sooraj saying that if attack like this can happen in a renowned institute like IIT Madras, it can happen everywhere. "Even if meat is cooked at homes, these people could come to your houses in groups and attack you," he stressed.Â
Also read:Â Fringe group attacks, severely injures IIT Madras student for organising beef fest
Sooraj suffered serious injuries to his right eye, for which he is set to undergo surgery, and fracture of a bone near his cheek. He has also suffered cerebral damage and there is blood clot in several areas in his head. His recovery is expected take more than two weeks, and the medical procedures are expensive.
Meanwhile, students of IIT Madras, who are holding protests in the campus against the attack, have filed an official complaint to the administration.
The letter puts forward two main demands: that the attackers should be expelled, and that Sooraj's medical expenses should be taken care of by the institute.
"We demand that 1) All the students who attacked Sooraj be expelled from the institute and disallowed entry into the campus with immediate effect, with Sooraj being given an assurance regarding the same. 2) The institute should take full responsibility for Sooraj’s medical expenses till he fully recovers," the letter reads.
