Guwahati: Woman accuses Cotton Uni students of assault; GS denies claims

Guwahati, Nov 27: One of the prominent educational institutions of the city, Cotton University in Guwahati, has once again come to the limelight after a few students of the university allegedly attacked a woman and her husband on Sunday night.

According to initial information, the hostel boarders of Mahendra Nath Deka Phukan Hostel (MNDP) were allegedly assaulting an intoxicated pedestrian when the victim and her husband were travelling through the hostel road. When they noticed the students assaulting the drunken man, the victim’s husband intervened and asked to pour water on his face to make him come to his senses instead of beating him to death. The intervention angered the students and slapped him hard on his face, the victim told reporters.

She further said, “When they slapped my husband, I got out of the car to tell them that my husband only asked to wake up the drunken man instead of beating him to death, however, instead of understanding what we were trying to imply, one of the angst youths punched me on my face and hit me with something on the head following which I fell unconscious. Later, they hurried inside the hostel and locked the gate.”

Meanwhile, Cotton University General Secretary Javed Akhtar refuted the claims that the youths who assaulted the woman were students of the university stating that gates remain closed post 9 pm to avoid such kinds of situations.

Akhtar told The Assam Tribune, “As our university is not a closed campus, we seldom land into controversy and it gets worse when only a one-sided story is presented to the masses. Owing to this, we have made stringent rules to not allow hostellers to leave their hostels post 9 pm and the university has also installed CCTV outside our hostels to make sure the reputation of our university remains unharmed.”

“Yesterday night, at least four thieves entered our hostel premises. When they got the clue that the security guards were trying to nab them, they tried to escape from the MNDP entrance gate. All this while, the woman was standing at the gate and fell when the thieves pushed her to flee from the spot. She was lying there unconscious for around 15 minutes and when the security guard tried to wake her up, they got the smell of alcohol in her breath,” he stated.

“The police are welcome to check the CCTV footage and identify if any of the youths are studying in our university,” he said adding that the university is likely to hand over the footage by today evening.