A first-year engineering student in Uttar Pradesh's Kanpur district was hospitalised after he was allegedly ragged and assaulted by his seniors because he declined to mouth abusive words, police said Monday.

Rajanshu, a B.Tech student of the Pranveer Singh Institute of Technology, was ill-treated by a group of seniors inside his hostel room on the campus Sunday for not using expletives during his introduction. He was hospitalised in the evening by some of his batchmates, who found him lying unconscious inside his room.

A case against unidentified students was registered late Sunday by the police.

"According to Rajanshu, four senior students physically abused him for defying their order to use objectionable words while introducing himself to a group of senior students," police inspector P.K. Pandey told reporters in Kanpur, some 80 km from Lucknow.

"Rajanshu, who took admission in the college earlier this month, failed to identify the seniors by their names. So we have registered a case against unidentified students," he added.

Police and college officials have initiated a joint inquiry into the incident to gather information about the senior students who assaulted Rajanshu, who hails from Aligarh.