NEW DELHI — A branch of India’s most prestigious engineering university in the southern city of Chennai has suspended a left-wing student group that was accused of spreading hatred toward Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a university official said on Friday.

In an email sent by the dean of students at the university, the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, and shared by the student group, the group was notified that the university had dissolved it for “misusing the privileges” of an independent student organization.

But after the decision sparked an uproar on traditional and social media, K. Ramamurthy, the acting director of the university, told reporters on Friday that the group was only being suspended.

A letter signed simply by “students” at the university and addressed to the central government said the group, the Ambedkar-Periyar study circle, named after two Indian liberal intellectuals, had attempted to foment hatred toward Mr. Modi and Hindus.