A Pondicherry University dean and three others have been booked by police on a complaint by a post-graduate student that he was 'tortured' and confined for more than 24 hours on a 'false' charge that he had barged into a girls' hostel recently.

Cases under different sections of the IPC for offences such as causing hurt by dangerous weapons or means, obscene acts in public place and punishment for wrongful confinement have been filed against the Dean of College Development Council and Academic Staff College of Pondicherry University S Hariharan and three other staff members, police said today.

The cases were registered on a complaint by first-year student of M A in Tamil Radhakrishnan, who alleged he was beaten up by three staff in the security office at the instance of the Dean in a bid to force him to confess that he had barged into the girls hostel room, they said.

The student said he was falsely implicated, beaten up and was wrongfully confined for more than 24 hours in the office room of the security guards.

An internal committee which probed the issue found that the accusation against the student was false and on verification of the CCTV footage it was found that he was in the library at the time of the incident in the hostel.

Students of the institution, a central university, had staged a strike and other agitations in the past two days demanding action against the Dean and the three staff members for falsely implicating the student and subjecting him to torture and mental agony.