Partha Bose

Trinamul councillor Partha Bose, accused of leading the attack on Presidency University, surrendered at Bankshall court on Wednesday, apparently after a prod by Mamata Banerjee who seems to be eyeing twin goals at one stroke.

“The chief minister called up Partha’s wife Sonali Guha (deputy Speaker of the Assembly) last night and asked her to convince her husband to surrender today,” said a Trinamul source.

Tamaghna Ghosh, the general secretary of Trinamul Chhatra Parishad, surrendered along with Bose. Both got bail in 10 minutes.

“The surrenders will enable the government and the Trinamul leadership to claim that ruling party activists were not spared in the Presidency vandalism case. This will allow the chief minister to take the moral high ground,” said the party insider.

“The twin surrenders will also be trumpeted to exert pressure on the Centre to act against the SFI activists who had assaulted finance minister Amit Mitra in Delhi.”

In a police complaint on Saturday night, Presidency student Debarshi Chakraborty had accused Bose and Ghosh of leading the attack on the campus, during which the complainant was assaulted and the physics laboratory ransacked.

The duo were charged with sections related to rioting, trespassing, voluntarily causing hurt and wrongful restraint. Though there were specific charges against the duo, the police had not interrogated them while probing the April 10 vandalism.

Trinamul insiders admitted that lack of any “visible police action” was causing embarrassment to the chief minister, who had described Presidency as her “dream project” and said she was “devastated” by what had happened at the College Street institution.

Mamata had called Presidency vice-chancellor Malabika Sarkar and assured her that such incidents would not be allowed to recur.

“Now that the two main accused have surrendered, albeit quite late in the day, no one will be able to point a finger at her,” said a senior Trinamul minister who refused to be named for obvious reasons.

“We will highlight the surrender of Bose and Ghosh at all our rallies to build pressure on the Centre to act against finance minister Mitra’s attackers. We have the moral right to demand action as our leaders have not been spared in the Presidency case,” said another senior Trinamul leader.

Union home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, in town on Thursday, said: “I have instituted an inquiry (into the attack on Mitra) by a special secretary in the home department.”

Trinamul leaders welcomed Shinde’s statement but made it clear that they wanted nothing less than the arrest of the main accused.

This is the first time in recent past that an elected Trinamul representative has surrendered in court.

Three Trinamul leaders have recently been involved in criminal cases — former Bhangar MLA Arabul Islam, accused of leading an assault on CPM veteran Abdur Rezzak Mollah, and Trinamul councillors Mohammad Iqbal and Shambhu Nath Kow, both accused in murder cases. All three were arrested.

The fact that Bose is a lightweight compared with the three others helped the Trinamul leadership persuade him to surrender.

“My clients were booked under bailable sections, so they did not face any problem in getting bail,” said defence lawyer Dhananjoy Chakraborty.