The arrival of the one-man inquiry commission at Bengal Engineering and Science University (Besu) on Wednesday prompted the students to “temporarily withdraw” their relay hunger strike. The commission, led by former Besu vice-chancellor Sparshamani Chatterjee, will probe the recent spate of unrest on campus.

“Today, for the first time, we felt someone impartial has come to listen to us,” said Madhumanti Bhattacharya, a fourth-year student. Bhattacharya and nine other students, who were beaten up during the recent unrest, met Chatterjee in the Conference Hall at noon.

Chatterjee, who also talked to the professor-in-charge of students’ affairs, Anjan Ghosh, will stay overnight on the campus for a few days. “The students are fearing a backlash as the commission has started work. I have given them my contact number and told them to call me if violence erupts again,” said Chatterjee.

He wants to meet all the students, representatives of the students’ unions, teachers, members of the non-academic staff and the alumni.

“The students responded once I approached them with care and affection. They have been neglected and driven to this point,” he said.

The students asserted that they would resume their hunger strike if the authorities did not withdraw the FIRs against 61 students at the earliest. “We wanted the board of management to assure us in writing about the withdrawal of the legal cases. But now, after having talked to our former vice-chancellor, we are temporarily withdrawing the strike,” said Bhattacharya.

On Tuesday, Besu students supporting the SFI met chancellor Gopalkrishna Gandhi and vice-chancellor N.R. Banerjea and submitted a memorandum. They demanded that “only innocent students be let free and the culprits be punished”. They also demanded that the students’ union elections be held only when a “democratic environment” returned on campus.