Dibrugarh University (DU) in Assam on Wednesday “permanently expelled” four students from the institution and also barred their admission to any varsity in India for the next three years for their “involvement” in the ragging of a first-semester student.

The student will be undergoing surgery for his injured spinal cord in a Dibrugarh hospital on Thursday.

The decision to expel the quartet was based on the “recommendations” of the varsity’s anti-ragging committee (ARC) in its meeting on Wednesday “after the establishment of guilt”, and also considering the opinion of its anti-ragging squad.

The students who have been “permanently expelled” from the DU are Galab Deka, Kamaleshwar Chutia, Mousum Phukan (all third-semester M.Sc students) and Pusangkham Boruah (second-year diploma) They have been handed the punishment under Clause 7 (B) (IX) of Dibrugarh University Regulations for Prohibiting Ragging and Anti-Ragging Measures.

The decision comes into effect immediately.

DU’s crackdown comes a day after the Assam cabinet expressed its dissatisfaction with the way the varsity “dealt” with the ragging case involving first-semester M.Com student Anand Sharma.

Chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had said on Tuesday, “We will not tolerate ragging in any college or university. There will be zero tolerance… if there is any complicity with the authority we will not spare them also… will bring them under probe.”

Anand Sharma had to jump off the second floor of his hostel to “save himself from the extreme mental and physical torture” inflicted by five students, including a former student, from Saturday evening to Sunday morning.

The jump landed Sharmain a private hospital with serious injuries to his hand, legs,rib cage and spinal cord which“will be operated on Thursday” in a Dibrugarh hospital.

Sharma had complained to the warden on November 17 about his ordeal but there seems to have been no action to check the tragedy, a family member said.

The police have till now arrested four students — Pranjit Baruah, Simanta Hazarika and Niranjon Thakur and Subhrajit Baruah.