Thiruvananthapuram: The Kazhakkuttam Police have registered a case against seven third-year students from Kariavattom Government College on charges of assaulting junior students. The complainant, Abhishek, alleged that on February 11, 2025, senior students attacked him and his friend Bins Jose.

The accused—Alan, Velu, Anandan, Salman, Sravan, Pardhan, and Immanuel—have been booked under sections 189(2) (unlawful assembly), 191(2) (rioting), 190 (unlawful assembly with intent to commit a crime), 115(2) (voluntarily causing hurt), 191(3) (rioting with a deadly weapon), 126(2) (wrongful restraint), and 127(2) (wrongful confinement) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).

According to the FIR, the second accused, Anandan, took Abhishek to the unit room and locked it. The fourth accused, Salman, threatened Abishek asking, "Why do you have so much attitude? Aren’t you just a first-year student?" They then asked Abhishek to remove his shirt. When he refused, the first accused, Alan and Salman, slapped him on his left cheek. Although Abhishek managed to escape and run, the group rounded him up and beat him with sticks and stones.

Meanwhile, Abhishek’s friend Bins Jose was also allegedly assaulted. “First, they beat me and my friend Abhishek inside the college building. After he ran toward the principal's office, seven students dragged me into the SFI unit room and assaulted me,” Bins alleged. “They tore my shirt, and I had to remain inside the room without it. They only gave me another shirt later,” he added. The senior students ordered Bins to kneel down. When he refused, they beat him and kept him on his knees for about 15 minutes. When Bins asked for water, one of the senior students spat inside a bottle and forced him to drink it.

“They confiscated my son’s phone, and he couldn’t contact anyone,” said Jose, Bins’s father.

After the college’s Anti-Ragging Cell confirmed the incident, the principal forwarded the complaint to the Kazhakkuttam Police. The police are likely to add charges related to ragging as well.