A former Jadavpur University student arrested from Delhi airport on Wednesday had allegedly played an “active role” in planning the attack on state education minister Bratya Basu on the JU campus on March 1, police said on Thursday.
The police said that after the arrest of several students and former students in connection with the incident, investigators came across chats in various WhatsApp groups where Hindol Majumdar was found to have instigated the attack.
“We found instigating chats like — ‘We will have to gherao the minister when he comes.... You should attack Bratya Basu.... You should attack Bratya Basu’s car’,” said an officer attached to the probe.
The police said that though Hindol was away from the crime scene, he had instigated others, “which makes him equally culpable”.
Hindol has been charged with various offences (see chart).
A section of extreme-Left students and SFI supporters had detained Basu for hours when he went to the university on March 1 to attend a programme. The students allegedly heckled the minister, demanding the immediate resumption of campus polls.
“I have nothing to say in particular about it (the arrest). The police did not inform me of anything. The police are supposed to deal with the matter. I am neither in favour nor against what happened,” Basu told journalists at a programme of the state higher secondary council on Thursday.
Hindol was produced before a court in Delhi on Thursday and sent to Calcutta on a four-day transit remand.
His father, Chandan Majumdar, a retired teacher of JU, said: “The police are saying he was involved in planning (the attack on the minister). This is an absurd claim. It is unclear why a look-out notice had to be issued against him. Had the police intimidated us about his involvement, I would have taken him to the police myself,” Majumdar said.
Hindol’s mother, also a JU teacher, said she did not believe that her son could be involved in something like this.
Hindol, who is pursuing higher studies in Spain, was detained at Delhi airport. He was on his way to Calcutta.
Human rights association APDR said in a release that the arrest suggested “blatant state atrocity”.
The Jadavpur University Teachers’ Association also criticised the former student’s arrest.