Kakinada: A dispute over a missing mobile phone escalated into a violent confrontation between students from the Northeast and local students at a private nursing college in Andhra Pradesh’s Kakinada district late on Saturday night.
The incident took place at SK College of Nursing, Kakinada, where around sixty girl students stay in the attached hostel. According to preliminary information, a smartphone belonging to a http://B.Sc Nursing student from Manipur went missing on August 21 while it was kept on charging in the common corridor.
The student reportedly tracked the phone through a location-sharing and tracking application and found that the device was still active and showing its location inside the hostel premises itself. She and her friends alleged that the phone had been stolen by someone inside and demanded that rooms be checked.
What began as a demand to find the thief soon turned into a heated argument between Northeast students and local students. Local students accused the Northeast group of making baseless theft allegations and entering their rooms without permission from the warden. The verbal spat quickly turned into a physical clash.
Disturbing visuals from the hostel, now widely shared on social media, show a chaotic scene inside the corridor. Girl students are seen throwing slippers, plastic buckets, mugs and broomsticks at each other while hostel staff tried to intervene. Some reports also claimed that wooden sticks were used by both sides.
According to students from the Northeast, the situation became frightening when they were gheraoed inside their rooms on the first floor after the argument intensified. They alleged that local students barricaded the corridor, banged on their doors, and continued to abuse them verbally, forcing them to lock themselves inside.
At least four to five students from the Northeast reportedly sustained minor injuries during the confrontation. They later alleged institutional bias, claiming that the hostel warden and college management sided with local students and did not respond to their distress calls for more than an hour.
Following SOS calls and messages posted by the students online, Kakinada District Collector Shanmohan Sagili and Superintendent of Police G Bindu Madhav intervened around midnight. Police personnel were deployed on the campus and the injured students were shifted to Government General Hospital, Kakinada for first aid and later brought back.
In a major late-night development, the district administration decided to immediately relocate all eighteen Northeast students, mostly from Manipur, Nagaland and Assam, to a separate government-run hostel facility with round-the-clock police protection and food arrangements. The administration assured full security.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu reviewed the incident early on Sunday morning, August 23. According to the Chief Minister’s Office, he directed the District Collector, SP and Director of Medical Education to resolve the matter immediately and ensure that no student faces discrimination, threat or harassment.
Acting on his instructions, the college management has constituted a five-member internal inquiry committee headed by the principal and has temporarily suspended hostel activities for two days to defuse tension. Kakinada Police has registered a case and a counter-case under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita for causing hurt and criminal intimidation, and CCTV footage is being examined.
The incident has drawn strong political reactions from the Northeast. Former Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh posted on X, tagging CM Naidu and requesting immediate protection for Manipuri students studying in Kakinada. After the administration’s action, he thanked Naidu for his kind and timely intervention to ensure students’ safety.
Student bodies including the All Manipur Students Association and the Northeast Students Organisation have strongly condemned the attack and demanded a safety audit of all colleges in Andhra Pradesh where Northeast students are studying. They also demanded strict action against the hostel warden for alleged negligence and failure to protect students.
Parents of several Northeast students have expressed deep concern over their children’s safety and some are reportedly planning to bring them back home. The Andhra Pradesh government, however, has assured them that all necessary measures are being taken to prevent any recurrence and a dedicated helpline number has been issued by the district administration for out-of-state students.
Meanwhile, SK College of Nursing management has issued a statement saying the entire incident was a misunderstanding over a lost phone that went out of hand. They denied allegations of bias and said they are fully cooperating with the police. The management added that stricter hostel rules, including installation of additional CCTV cameras and a separate grievance redressal system, will be implemented.
As of Sunday morning, the situation on the campus is under control but remains tense with a police picket continuing outside the college premises. District Collector Shanmohan Sagili is expected to hold a joint counselling meeting with students from both groups on Sunday afternoon to restore normalcy, and classes are expected to resume from Monday under tight security.
