A second-year BBA student of Jamshedpur was allegedly stabbed several times by his 47-year-old neighbour who police described as mentally unstable at Salt Lake’s ED block on Thursday night.

Police said Ankit Kadruar (19), a student of Techno India University here, suffered multiple stab wounds in the chest, abdomen and hands for which he had to undergo plastic surgery at night. He is stable but critical.

Police said Ankit, who shares a rented two bedroom flat with three students in Karunamoyee Housing Complex’s C block, returned at 8pm after buying vegetables and groceries from a market and rang the doorbell of the third-floor flat several times as his roommates were not opening the door. He was then attacked by his next-door neighbour Shantanu Das.

None of the residents of the flat came to Ankit’s aid even though he screamed for help as a knife-wielding Das chased him to the roof and stabbed him multiple times, an officer of the Bidhannagar Commissionerate said.

Bleeding, Ankti managed to run downstairs and head for the playground inside the complex where he slumped.

Das gave up chasing him once he managed to get out of the flat’s main gate, the officer added.

By this time two of his roommates who were headed back to their flat spotted him lying in a pool of blood.

“It took time for us to realise that Ankit was lying sprawled on the ground. We could barely hear him telling us to take him to a hospital. Policemen near the park also spotted him and helped us stop a rickshaw that took us to the main gate of the complex. From there we put him in an auto-rickshaw and took him to AMRI hospital in Salt Lake,” said a roommate who did not wish to be named.

Ankit was then taken to the Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals off EM Bypass at night.

Apollo Gleneagles medical superintendent Dr Partho Bhattacharya said Ankit had suffered multiple stab wounds on his chest, lower abdomen and hands. “He underwent plastic surgery Thursday night. He is stable but continues to be critical and is admitted to the intensive care unit,” Bhattcharya said.

Das who later walked to Bidhannagar East police station and surrendered was charged under various sections of IPC, including 307 (attempt to murder) and 326 (causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons or means).

He was produced in a Salt Lake court on Friday that sent him to judicial custody till December 17.

Soumyajit Raha, Das’s lawyer, said that he had been under medication for several mental illnesses including schizophrenia since 1996 for the last 17 years.

“We have submitted all his prescriptions to the court. He has been under medication for the past 17 years and did not have any pre-planned motive to attack the boy,” Raha said.

The police have not been able to recover the knife that Das had used to stab Ankit.