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JU alumnus granted bail in Bengal minister attack case; students, teachers demand release

Hindol Majumdar, currently a researcher at a Spanish university, was produced before the Alipore court following the expiry of his three-day police custody

Hindol Majumdar File picture

Our Web Desk, PTI
Published 18.08.25, 04:47 PM

Jadavpur University (JU) alumnus Hindol Majumdar, accused of conspiring to attack West Bengal Education Minister Bratya Basu’s convoy on the varsity campus in March this year, was granted bail by a Kolkata court on Monday, five days after his arrest at the Delhi airport.

Majumdar, currently a researcher at a Spanish university, was produced before the Alipore court following the expiry of his three-day police custody.

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The court granted him bail on a surety of Rs 1,000 after his counsel argued that there was no visible progress in the investigation against him.

Opposing the bail plea, Kolkata Police said Majumdar’s release could hamper the “smooth progress of investigation” and prayed for judicial custody instead.

On Friday, the government pleader had contended that although Majumdar was abroad during the March 1 incident, he was the “prime conspirator” of the attack, comparing his alleged role to the 2002 American Center attack in Kolkata, where “the mastermind Aftab Ansari planned the sabotage operation while sitting in Dubai.”

Majumdar’s counsel dismissed the charges as baseless, saying, “We have seen the prosecution’s documents they will submit in court today. They are likely to seek my client’s judicial custody. That means they find no need to interrogate him further. We will move his bail prayer since he has clearly been framed.”

The defence also pointed out that Majumdar’s name did not appear in the FIR linked to the campus violence.

Police, however, claimed to have accessed conversations between him and students who allegedly attacked the minister’s car.

Meanwhile, the arrest sparked outrage at Jadavpur University. Former and current students, along with teachers, researchers and non-teaching staff, took out a rally from the main campus to Jadavpur Police Station demanding Majumdar’s immediate and unconditional release. They described him as a “mass-movement worker.”

“This arrest is nothing but a farce and a joke. This government is trying to convert Bengal into a police state,” alleged former JU teacher Ambikesh Mahapatra, who was himself arrested in 2012 for circulating a satirical cartoon of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

A former student echoed the sentiment, saying, “We do not believe that Majumdar was in any way involved in the campus violence in question. He is a bright student and the police are making up stories. Their claim that he plotted the violence while sitting in Spain and comparing him with terrorist Aftab Ansari is ridiculous. This only goes to show that free thinkers who speak up against the state atrocities are the soft targets in Bengal.”

The incident dates back to March 1, when Education Minister Bratya Basu visited JU to attend a meeting of the Trinamool Congress-backed professors’ body WBCUPA. As he was leaving, he faced protests by Left-wing student groups, including SFI, who were demanding overdue students’ union elections.

Basu alleged he was physically heckled and his car vandalised, while protesting students claimed the minister’s vehicle ran over one of them, leaving him with an eye injury.

Jadavpur University Bratya Basu
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