Police on Wednesday started a formal case against a former governing body member of Surendranath College and an external vendor who allegedly carried out most of the civil work on the campus over the past five years.
They have been accused of keeping several ground-floor rooms and a students’ union room under lock and key and allegedly using them for their own purposes, police said.
Police identified the accused as Debasish Banerjee and Paritosh Dutta.
“The accused persons, namely Debasish Banerjee, being the ex-governing body member, and Paritosh Dutta, a vendor of Surendranath College, entered into a criminal conspiracy and, pursuant to that conspiracy, forcefully locked certain rooms on the ground floor and a union room of the college and used them for their own purposes,” said Soma Das Mitra, joint commissioner (crime), Kolkata Police.
A case has been registered at Muchipara police station under sections relating to criminal conspiracy, house trespass, mischief, criminal intimidation, provisions of the Arms Act and the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act.
Sources said Debasish was not found when police went looking for him at his home on Wednesday.
Metro could not reach Debasish on Wednesday evening as his phone was switched off.
His son, Sibasish Banerjee, teaches at Surendranath Law College, which shares the campus with Surendranath College.
Sibasish, a state-aided college teacher — a designation introduced by Trinamool for contractual and part-time educators in state-aided colleges and universities — is also a Calcutta University nominee to the governing body of Surendranath Law College, a college official said.
His father, Debasish, was also a government nominee to the governing body of Surendranath Law College, the official said.
On Wednesday, several Surendranath College students alleged that the Trinamool Congress Chhatra Parishad-run students’ union operated an admission racket.
Akhilesh Singh, a third-year Geography honours student, alleged that when he took admission in 2022, he was asked to pay ₹1.5 lakh.
“I did not have to pay in the end because I knew a Trinamool MP. His influence helped me. But there are students who had to pay. A section of Group D staff runs the racket with the help of the students’ union,” he alleged.
Teacher-in-charge Purnendu Prakash Pal said he joined the college in February this year and was unaware of any admission racket.
He added that the college authorities had filed FIRs with Muchipara police station regarding Tuesday’s incident.
“We filed FIRs at Muchipara police station late on Tuesday. This has been reported to the department. We have also shared the composition of the college governing body,” Pal said.
Bundles of termite-eaten ₹100 and ₹500 notes stashed inside two trolley bags spilled out of the students’ union room during an anti-mosquito drive at Surendranath College on Tuesday afternoon.
The higher education department has sought a report from the college following reports of a cash haul and the recovery of a firearm from the campus.
Sources in the department said the college had been asked to state whether it had filed an FIR following the recovery of the termite-eaten cash and firearm.
The authorities have also been asked to provide details of the governing body that functioned as the principal decision-making body during the tenure of the erstwhile government.
The BJP government has dissolved the governing bodies of government-aided colleges.
Sources in the department said they wanted to know the role played by a government nominee to the governing body who was a local Trinamool leader in Sealdah.
“There are reports that the government nominee used to take all decisions on behalf of the governing body. He even controlled the activities of the students’ union from behind,” a source said.