IIT-Roorkee student from Jharkhand attacked by peers with glass bottles

ROORKEE: Kishan Kumar Keshri, a 23-year-old student from IIT-Roorkee, who was brutally beaten by his classmates on the night of March 23, is gradually recovering from multiple injuries. He is currently undergoing treatment at a multispecialty hospital in Dehradun. However, his family has stated that after this incident, they will not let their only son stay alone at the institute and will keep him with them in Roorkee until he completes his degree.
Kishan, who is in the final year of his Integrated MTech (IMT) degree programme, needs to stay at the institute for approximately 45 more days to complete his research dissertation. Meanwhile, his attackers have been absconding since the incident.

On March 23, around 10 pm, Kishan went to a hotel near the institute campus to meet a senior who was staying there. When he was leaving an hour later, five students from the institute attacked him at the hotel reception, striking his head with glass bottles and punching his face, causing him to collapse. However, they did not stop and continued to kick and punch him until he was left half-conscious. He was then taken to the institute’s hospital for treatment. The next evening, considering the severity of his injuries, the institute referred him to Dehradun for further medical care and informed his family about the incident. Since March 25, his parents have been by his side.
According to Kishan's 51-year-old father, Ajit Kumar Keshari, he sustained severe injuries to his head, nose, and eyes. "His head wounds are deep, his nasal bone was fractured and later dislocated, and he has injuries under his eyes as well. He underwent corrective nose surgery, and his treatment is ongoing under the supervision of expert doctors. The only relief for us is that his condition is now improving, and he is out of danger," he said.
Kishan's father, a hotelier by profession, owns a hotel in Dhanbad. Kishan also has a younger sister who suffers from muscular dystrophy. "Now, we will not leave Kishan alone in Roorkee. Who knows when they might attack him again? Our biggest concern is how we will take care of our daughter while staying in Roorkee," he added.
Kishan completed his schooling at DPS Dhanbad in 2018 and enrolled at IIT-R in 2020 in a five-year IMT (Geological Technology) programme. He was registered in the institute’s Earth Sciences Department and was staying in Govind Bhavan Hostel.
It is reported that due to a dispute arising from student union politics, the accused had come to Govind Bhavan Hostel in September 2023 to assault a student. When they were attacking that student, Kishan raised an alarm and called security guards. Holding a grudge over this incident, the accused later found an opportunity and assaulted Kishan on March 23.
After the September incident, the institute, however provided a security guard for Kishan for a few days.
One of the five accused, Nitin Pratap Singh, had enrolled in the five-year Bachelor of Architecture (BArch) programme in 2021. However, he was expelled from the institute due to the September altercation. "If this expelled student is still staying in the hostel, then the accused can target my son again at any time," said Kishan’s father.
Roorkee Civil Lines police station have already registered a case against five students—Vaibhav Singh, Bipin Kumar, Utkarsh Gautam, Anmol Raj, and Nitin Pratap Singh—on March 26 under BNS sections 109 (attempt to murder), 191-2 (rioting for a common goal), and 191-3 (rioting with a deadly weapon). "All the accused are still absconding, but our teams are actively working to arrest them at the earliest," said SP (Rural) SC Suyal.
KEY HIGHLIGHTS: