Raiganj, Jan. 20: A student of Itahar Meghnad Saha College, near which three ABVP activists were shot at allegedly by a Trinamul-backed group, has named 16 ruling party leaders, among whom feature the nephew of Trinamul MLA Amal Acharya and a leader who had assaulted a previous principal of the college.

Three second-year students were shot at yesterday when the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) activists were on their way to the college to collect election nomination forms. The FIR was lodged last night by second-year student and ABVP supporter Subir Swarnakar.

Along with Indranil Acharya, Amal Acharya's nephew, the list contains the name of Trinamul zilla parishad member Gautam Pal, who is also the North Dinajpur district Trinamul Youth Congress president. Pal was in the news in August 2013 for leading an attack on Swapna Mukherjee, the principal of Meghnad Saha College.

Pal had assaulted the principal, the wife of former CPI MLA from Itahar Srikumar Mukherjee, and three other staff members after his wife Pampa was found cheating in an exam.

In the list of 16 are also the names of Babusona Mahanta, who had accompanied Gautam Pal when he allegedly assaulted the college principal, and Sayesta Alam. Both are TMCP leaders.

Babusona was arrested for the assault on the principal. Pal subsequently surrendered in court. Both are out on bail now.

When Metro called up Gautam Pal today, he denied having anything to do with yesterday's violence. 'Why should we be involved in the violence? We are in control of the outgoing union at Meghnad Saha College and we were confident of winning the January 28 elections.... The charges brought against me and the others are fabricated,' he said.

Amal Acharya did not take calls.

Raiganj police superintendent Syed Waqar Raza said that an investigation had been started. 'The Itahar police are investigating the case on the basis of the FIR. We are looking for those named in the FIR. No one has been arrested as yet,' he said.

Two of the three injured students - Sudipta Mondol, who has a bullet lodged in his hip, and Selim Sheikh, whose head was grazed by a bullet - were brought to the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital (NBMCH) in Siliguri. Hospital superintendent Sabyasachi Das said: 'One of them then has a bullet lodged close to the spine. We will remove the bullet after he becomes more stable.'

A students' strike called by the BJP in Itahar kept all education institutions shut today.

The TMCP is set to become the ruling students' union uncontested at Meghnad Saha College as neither the ABVP or the AISF, the CPI's union, could collect the forms yesterday. Today was the day for submission of nominations.

Both the BJP and the CPI today demanded that the nomination process at the Itahar college should be held afresh.

Sources at the Meghnad Saha College, who did not want to be named, said that the election schedule would not be altered. 'There was no incident on the college premises and we cannot officially change the schedule of the elections that are scheduled for January 28,' a source said. The ABVP and AISF supporters were attacked yesterday about a kilometre from the college.