Feb. 27: Burdwan University vice-chancellor Smriti Kumar Sarkar today condemned last night's campus assault that saw a group attack students protesting against anomalies in exam results with nail-studded batons.
"Last night's incident was unfortunate.... How can I support my students getting beaten up on the campus?" Sarkar told a private news channel.
Undergraduate students who were on a hunger strike on the campus were assaulted and driven away by the group, one of whose members confessed that he had been summoned by a Trinamul university union leader.
The hunger strike was being organised to protest faults in BA second-year results, although they were withdrawn and declared afresh at least thrice, and demand that third-year exams scheduled to begin in March be postponed.
Several calls to VC Sarkar's cellphone for a response on why police were not called went unanswered. According to convention, the police don't enter the campus of an educational institution unless called by its head. The police said tonight that no complaint related to the attack had been lodged.
Many students have alleged that Trinamul leaders Sitaram Mukherjee, the secretary of the Burdwan unit of the Trinamul-affiliated non-teaching staff association Sara Bangla Shiksha Bandhu Samiti, and Anshuman Paramanik had got in outsiders for the attack. Suspected members of the union have also been accused of switching off the lights to help the attackers.
Today, the students alleged that Keshto, one of the attackers who had claimed to be a Trinamul supporter and said he had been directed by Mukherjee to remove the protesters, was "snatched" by Paramanik minutes after he was caught.
"We had taken Keshto to the administrative building. Within 20 minutes, Paramanik and his associates came and took him away. Keshto's pictures have been beamed on TV and published in newspapers, but no action is being taken against him," a student said.
Mukherjee denied the allegations against him. "Students have the right to agitate. No one was beaten up. We just lifted the agitation as the students were not allowing the staff to go home," he said. The leader refused comment when told that the VC had condemned the attack. Paramanik could not be contacted.
A professor questioned the role of the police. "How can you expect Sitaram to admit that his men beat up the students. From what the VC said, it is clear that the students were beaten up. The question is, why aren't the police doing their job? I am afraid the police wouldn't do anything as ruling party members were involved in the assault," he said.
An officer of Burdwan police station said Trinamul leader Mukherjee had played a role in keeping cops away from the campus.
"After receiving several phone calls from students, an officer had called up registrar Deb Kumar Panja and asked if police intervention was required. But the registrar said the VC would take a decision. The officer then called Mukherjee. He too said the VC would take a call. As the VC could not be contacted, a force didn't go to the campus," the officer said.
Repeated calls to Panja's cellphone by this correspondent went unanswered. Mukherjee denied the officer's claim.
A lawyer at a Burdwan court said the police could have taken suo motu cognisance and initiated a case on the basis of the footage of the assault beamed on TV channels and images possibly captured on the university's CCTV cameras. He said a case of rioting could have been started.
Burdwan police chief Kunal Aggarwal was not available for comment.
Education minister Partha Chatterjee said he was "extremely dissatisfied" with the Burdwan University authorities. "I have told the university authorities several times to hold examinations and publish the results on time.... Students are not satisfied with the way these processes are being conducted. I have asked education secretary Vivek Kumar to talk to the university authorities so that there is no laxity in these processes," Chatterjee said on the sidelines of a programme in Calcutta.
