A brawl on Tuesday night over drinking among medical students broke out at RIMS, the state’s biggest and most famous government-run hospital and medical college that chief minister Raghubar Das wants to be run on the lines of AIIMS.

Around 10 students of the 2018 MBBS batch had apparently organised a beer party at hostel 2 on RIMS campus which did not go down well with senior students of the 2015 batch, resulting in a fisticuffs that according to a student left one of them injured. The matter was “amicably settled”, RIMS director Dr D.K. Singh told this paper on Wednesday.

A medical student at RIMS, who spoke to this reporter but requested not to be named, said some seniors felt the juniors were “polluting the academic environment” with a beer party in the hostel. “It appears they used rough words and manhandled the juniors to discipline them. The juniors did not take it lying down. So there was a free-for-all. The matter could have gone out of hand but someone called up hostel warden Lakhan Manjhi, who was in Rourkela for some official work, and who immediately called up the dean of students’ welfare Dr R.K. Pandey, asking him to handle the situation. The brawl was controlled,” the RIMS student said.

His friend added that a junior student sustained injury in the brawl and had to be given first-aid. The matter was not reported to the police, the student added.

Asked, RIMS director Dr D.K .Singh confirmed the incident but said it was amicably settled on the initiative of the dean students’ welfare Pandey.

Pandey’s phone was switched off when this reporter called him up to know more about the incident.

President of RIMS Junior Doctors’ Association, who is also the president of the students’ welfare council Dr Ajit Kumar said he did not know anything about the brawl.

“Look, the matter has not come to my knowledge. But it is serious and I will certainly look into the matter and ensure that such incidents are not repeated at RIMS hostels,” Kumar said.

A resident who lives very close to the sprawling Bariatu campus of RIMS said it was very common for medical students to drink in the hostel.

“You’ll find many empty bottles on RIMS campus. These things largely go unnoticed. Yesterday (Wednesday) it became an issue because some seniors objected and tried to give a piece of their mind to the juniors,” the resident said.