Jadavpur University ruckus: Tension continues as students protest, 5 FIRs filed

Kolkata: Tension was prevailing within the campus of Kolkata’s iconic Jadavpur University (JU) a day after a ruckus by Left-wing students in which Education Minister Bratya Basu was injured.

The ruckus broke out on Saturday when the Minister’s car was allegedly stopped after it entered the campus, and a scuffle followed. The students were demanding immediate elections for the university’s student council.

Already, five FIRs have been lodged over the incident, and one former student of the university has been arrested. Of the five FIRs, three have been filed by the Trinamool Congress-affiliated West Bengal College & University Professors Association (WBCUPA), accusing the protesting students of heckling the Minister and destroying university property within the campus.

On the other hand, the students have registered FIRs accusing the Minister’s vehicle of deliberately hitting the students, causing severe injury to two protesting students. One former student of JU, Sahel Ali, was arrested by police late Saturday night.

Tension continued till late Saturday over a series of events as an after-effect of the ruckus. On one hand, the students mainly united under the banner of CPI(M)’s student wing, the Students’ Federation of India (SFI), and staged protests in front of the university campus. They protested against an unprovoked attack by the Minister’s associates and ruling party activists on their peaceful demonstration on Saturday.

Trinamool Congress activists also staged protests on the other side of the road against the alleged heckling of the Minister.

Later in the night, a group of protesting students allegedly gutted down an office belonging to a Trinamool Congress-affiliated body within the university campus.

Meanwhile, SFI has already announced their protest plans for the next two days on the issue. On Sunday afternoon, it will take out a protest march in the Jadavpur area. At the same time, SFI also convened a strike on Monday in all colleges and universities in the state.

On Saturday, amid the protests, the Minister received minor injuries and fell sick. He was taken to the state-run S.S.K.M. Medical College & Hospital and was released later..

IANS