Prantosh Sen in his chamber. Picture by Surajit Roy

Malda, May 26: The principal of Gour College was allegedly beaten up by a student when the former tried to prevent a group of boys from ransacking the exam hall.

The students went on the rampage after the principal, Prantosh Sen, caught two examinees copying and sent them out of the hall this afternoon.

Sen said he was invigilating the third year BA history examination when he had found two students copying answers from notes.

“I seized their answer scripts and asked them to go out of the exam hall. When I was coming down from the second floor room, where the exam took place, to my office on the ground floor around 1.30pm, I heard the noise of furniture being flung around. Staff members told me that some boys were ransacking the exam hall.”

The principal rushed upstairs and found the students flinging benches and tables. “When I caught one of the students, he beat me up and flung me down on the floor and ran away,” said Sen.

The principal suffered injury on the left arm and went to the nearby health centre for first-aid. Sen lodged a complaint with the Old Malda police and asked them to arrest the student who had attacked him.

“We on behalf of the college administration will take strong action against those indulging in such activities. We cannot allow the atmosphere in the college to be spoilt by such students. I have also informed the Gour Banga University about the incident,” said Sen. He added that a report had been sent to the education department also.

The superintendent of police, Malda, Bhuban Mondal, said the police had received the complaint from the principal. “The Old Malda police have already begun a probe. The principal has not named anyone in his complaint.”

The district general secretary of the Chhatra Parishad, Madhumoy Sarkar, said the college authorities were to blame for today’s incident. “The principal had caught a student who was leaving the exam hall after the paper got over and tried to hand him over to the police. But he escaped. It is a figment of their imagination that the college was ransacked,” Sarkar said.

College ransacked

Thirty-three BEd students were arrested on Thursday for ransacking a classroom of Suryasen College where a would-be teacher was disallowed from writing exam after being caught copying.

The institution located at Shivmandir was the exam centre of 95 students from Siliguri BEd College. The principal of Suryasen College, Sujoy Chakraborty, said the students had overturned the furniture and assaulted teachers who had tried to stop the attack.