Amit Das in the hospital. (Anirban Choudhuri)

Alipurduar, Jan. 8: Four Chhatra Parishad members were hospitalised after they were injured allegedly in a police lathicharge in Alipurduar College this afternoon.

The police action came after a clash broke out between supporters of the SFI and the CP on the last date of filing nomination forms for the student union election in the college scheduled for January 15.

Currently, the SFI controls the union in the college The student wing of the Congress had held it for three years prior to this. The clash on the campus is mainly a turf war between the two rival bodies.

The CP has lodged a police complaint demanding the arrest of the SFI members.

Saurav Chakrabarty, the CP’s state president, said the college authorities had made it mandatory that those who wanted to submit nomination forms should carry their college identity cards.

“Some SFI members along with CPM supporters from outside entered the college and started snatching the identity cards from our candidates without any provocation. When we protested, the police came and used lathis against our members,” Chakrabarty alleged.

Three CP candidates Shib Shambhu Das, Saumitra Banerjee and Shyamal Mullick were injured and another member Amit Das was hurt in the lathicharge, he said. The three candidates could not submit their nomination forms. The four have been admitted to Alipurduar Subdivisional Hospital.

While Shib Shambhu has been admitted and had to be given two stitches on the head, Amit has suffered a cut on his lips. The other two have been hit on hands, hospital sources said.

The CP will observe a black day tomorrow to protest the incident. “We have submitted complaints to the state home secretary, the district magistrate and the Jalpaiguri police superintendent, demanding the arrest of the SFI members who attacked us and also the police officers who acted in a partisan manner both here and at a Jalpaiguri women’s college today,” Chakrabarty said.

The general secretary of the SFI union in the college, Manish Pandey, however, blamed the CP for fomenting the trouble. “The process of submission of nomination forms was going on peacefully when the CP brought in outsiders and began harassing and beating up our candidates, prompting the police to resort to the lathicharge,” Pandey said.

Anup Jaiswal, the additional superintendent of police of Alipurduar, claimed that the lathicharge was mild. “There was some trouble at the college and the police had to intervene. I have heard that a few students have been injured, though not seriously. We have received a complaint and are looking into it.”

He said normality had been restored on the campus.