A man was allegedly dragged into a students’ hostel in central Calcutta on Friday morning on suspicion that he had stolen a mobile phone. Hours later, he died in a city hospital with multiple injuries on his body.

Police said Irshad Alam, 37, worked as a TV mechanic in the Chandni Chowk area. His family members have alleged that he was lynched by students in the hostel.

The deputy commissioner of police, central, Indira Mukherjee, said a case has been started under IPC sections on murder, kidnapping and criminal conspiracy. Fourteen students and former students were arrested on Friday night.

Wooden sticks and cricket bats were seized from the hostel, the police said.

Alam was found unconscious at Udayan Hostel, on Nirmal Chandra Street, around 9.30am. Cops took him to the Calcutta Medical College and Hospital, where he died.

The state backward class welfare department runs the hostel, which has been earmarked for SC/ST postgraduate students at Calcutta University, said an official of CU.

The incident bore a resemblance to the death of Kurban Shah, a mentally challenged person who was suspected to be a mobile phone thief and allegedly lynched inside the men’s hostel of the NRS Medical College and Hospital in November 2014.

There were no apparent blood marks on Alam’s body, an officer said. However, there were bruises on his legs which were found bandaged when he was rescued by the police.

“The cause of the death will become clear after the post-mortem,” the officer said.

Police sources said the students who have been detained told the officers that one of them had lost his mobile phone on Thursday. The matter was reported to the police the same day.

“The students are saying they scanned footage of a CCTV camera installed at a shop to find out who stole the phone. They spotted a ‘suspicious-looking’ man inthe footage. Today, whenthey saw Alam, they mistook him for the thief and dragged him into the hostel,” saidan officer in the detectivedepartment.

A police team rushed to the spot after learning that someone had been detained inside the hostel. Police sources said the hostel residents kept the cop team waiting for around 40 minutes before openingthe gate.

The owner of the shop where Alam worked said Alam had called him on Friday morning and said some men had detained him and were beating him up.

Alam’s family said he was killed by students in the hostel. “Alam had gone out for work at 6am. Around 1pm, we came to know that he is in hospital.... We are certain the students inside the hostel killed him,” said a family member.