The Mangaluru South police said the five arrested students are 19-year-old second-years in a BBA programme in Port Shipping Logistics at a college in Pandeshwar. The allegations stem from a complaint filed by one of the first-year students with the support of his parents.
The complaint alleges that nine second-year students took the two classmates from outside the college to a room, removed their clothing and assaulted them. It further alleges that one person threw dirty water at them when they asked for drinking water. After the students were released that evening, the complaint says, they were threatened and told to return to college clean-shaven and without shoes.
Police registered the case under provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita covering kidnapping, wrongful confinement, causing hurt, criminal intimidation and attempted murder, as well as Section 116 of the Karnataka Education Act. The arrests and charges are part of an ongoing investigation; the allegations have not been established in court.