A day after violent protests against State Education Minister Bratya Basu at Jadavpur University (JU) in Kolkata on Saturday, sevens FIRs were filed on Sunday at the local police station in connection with the incident and a former JU student was arrested in connection with a an arson incident later on Saturday, police said on Sunday. Kolkata Police Commissioner Manoj Kumar Verma told mediapersons, “The police suo motu filed two FIRs and five other FIRs were filed by different organisations.”
Basu was allegedly heckled and his vehicle gheraoed and vandalised by students during a protest that erupted during Basu’s visit to the Jadavpur University (JU) in Kolkata on Saturday. The protesters, however, alleged that some students among them were injured after being hit by the minister’s convoy on the campus.
Soon after, unidentified miscreants set fire to a portion of the university’s employees union office, which is affiliated to the ruling TMC. Fire brigade personnel reached the spot and extinguished the blaze.
On Sunday, a forensic team came to the spot and collected samples. Police said the arrested former JU student hails from Birbhum. Later on Sunday, he was produced in a court and remanded in police custody till March 12.
A senior police officer said, “We are interrogating him and also checking video clips of Saturday’s incident, trying to identify those behind the violence.”
Although Verma did not provide further details of the FIRs filed, police sources said two of these have been filed in connection with the vandalising of the minister’s vehicle and the fire incident. On the other hand, a TMC-affiliated professors’ organisation, WEBCUPA, filed an FIR against left-backed student organisations for creating ruckus during Saturday’s convention, alleged ‘attack’ on the minister’s convoy and ransacking their office.
The Students Federation of India (SFI) and other left organisations filed an FIR against Bratya Basu, alleging that his car allegedly hit and injured two students while it was leaving the JU campus on Saturday.