The body of Nishant Kiran, a student at a private engineering college in the town, was dumped at the gate of the Emergency Ward of Bolpur hospital in the wee hours, hospital officials said.
They said that four persons riding on two motorbikes had dumped the body at the gate of the Emergency at about 3 AM and fled.
Kiran, who hailed from Patna, was staying in a rented house with four other students of the same institute, Amitabha Chowdhury, an official of the institute said.
"I have heard from students that he was beaten severely by some miscreants," he said.
"It has been learnt that there was rivalry between two groups of students in the college. The local miscreants might be engaged by some group. We are waiting for the post-mortem report to know about the exact cause of the death, a police officer said.
Police have begun investigation in the matter.