Hundreds of Jadavpur University students marched on a stretch of south Calcutta on Monday in protest against the "heinous attack" on a student who allegedly came under the wheels of education minister Bratya Basu's car on the campus on Saturday.

Posters pinned to the protesters’ chests said "Rise in rage.…"

Some of the students in the march, organised by various Left and ultra-Left groups on the campus, demanded Basu’s resignation and arrest.

The march started from the university around 5pm and ended at Gol Park, 2.5km from the university gate, at 6pm.

Many of the marchers carried hand-drawn sketches of first-year student Indranuj Roy that depicted his eye injury. Indranuj is now in hospital with a bandaged left eye.

One of the pictures carried the message: "Stand against State oppression."

Students largely stayed away from their classes at JU and boycotted the day’s exams.

As the protesters assembled on the playground ahead of the march, Indranuj told TV channel ABP Ananda from his hospital bed: "The minister promised to sit in a discussion with us. While we were preparing for the meeting, Trinamool workers started an attack. The minister was made to board the car.

“Before the car started moving, we prepared a human chain in front of the vehicle but he instructed the driver to start the car. As his car picked up speed, we requested him to slow down but he did not.... What do we call this but an intent to murder?

Indranuj added: “I have been named in an FIR for vandalism of a Trinamool worker’s quarters and causing a fire in an office. But I am in hospital, injured....

“The doctor said that after the stitch is removed, they will see whether the condition of the eye has improved. A CT scan will be done then. Since there is a tear in the eyelid, it might require plastic surgery.”

Certain old social media posts attributed to Indranuj were widely circulated on Monday. One of the posts called for the “destruction of the Indian state” for waging war on Maoists.

Another post, written after former chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s death, called him a “tyrant” and a “hypocrite”.

During Monday’s rally, one of the students who had climbed on the bonnet of the minister’s car on Saturday said: “The education minister ran over a student. Tointimidate students, the police are slapping charges against them following his instructions.”

Debarghya Josh, one of the students leading the march, said: “The (former) student who has been arrested mustbe released. The education minister must own responsibility and step down. Our vice-chancellor must act against those who attacked our students.”

A former JU studentwho now works for a leading software company wasarrested early on Sunday in connection with Saturday’s arson and violence on the campus.

Around the time the marchers reached Gol Park, supporters of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the student wing of the RSS, entered the JU campus with their own rally.

They pulled down flags put up by Left outfits before being driven away by the university’s security staff.

Outside the gate, they were accosted by SFI supporters. The police got both sides to disperse.