Bratya Basu ‘pained’, calls parents of Jadavpur University student who was hit by his car
Telegraph | 5 March 2025
Bengal education minister Bratya Basu, whose car allegedly hit a Jadavpur University student who is now in hospital, called the parents of the boy on Monday evening and expressed his regret at the turn of events.
Basu told Indranuj Roy’s parents that he and his wife were in “great pain” at what had happened. The minister emphasised that he was a teacher and called himself a guardian of the injured student.
On Tuesday, Indranuj’s mother said she felt her son’s injuries at JU on Saturday were the result of an accident and not an intentional act. His father said the family took the minister’s call in a positive spirit and hoped that the false police cases drawn up against their son will be withdrawn.
Indranuj, admitted to KPC Medical College and Hospital, was “stable” on Tuesday, a hospital official said.
A medical team of five specialist doctors who examined the first-year undergraduate student on Monday will assess his condition again on Friday.
“The minister said he was sorry about what happened. He expressed his regrets. He wished my son a speedy recovery. The minister said he and his wife were in great pain over what happened,” Amit Roy, Indranuj’s father, said on Tuesday morning.
Indranuj is like his son, the minister told him, Amit said.
“We told the minister Indranuj informed us the students wanted a dialogue with him (on March 1) on campus elections. The minister was also keen to have a word with them. But some goons of the TMCP (Trinamool Congress Chhatra Parishad) started hurling stones and pushed the minister into the car. This made the situation even more complex than what it already was,” Amit said, narrating the conversation he had with Basu.
A section of students barracked and then barricaded the minister on March 1, demanding immediate talks on the resumption of student elections. They climbed onto his car and smashed the windshield.
Indranuj, one of the students clinging to Basu’s car, was flung away as it picked up speed. Some students have been accused of arson in the violence that followed on the campus.
Amit, a senior non-teaching official at Calcutta University, said he also brought to the minister’s notice the “false police cases” drawn up against Indranuj and other students. “He promised to look into them,” Amit said.
This newspaper reported on Monday that seven FIRs had been drawn up — including six against current and former students and others who have been accused of assault, outraging the modesty of women, damaging public property and snatching — after the minister was allegedly heckled on the campus. Basu was there to attend the annual general meeting of the pro-Trinamool West Bengal College and University Professors’ Association on March 1.
“We are taking the minister’s gesture of making a call in a positive spirit. However, we will be in a position to say whether he is really sorry based on the course of action he adopts regarding the false allegations that have been slapped. This will make the intentions clear,” said Amit.
Indranuj’s mother, Barnali Roy Basu, said she did not want a “political squabble” over what happened with her son.
“I am a teacher. I am not a person of politics. I don’t want political squabble over this,” she said.
Barnali, who teaches physiology at Surendranath College, told news channel ABP Ananda on Tuesday.
“This is an accident. This is not intentional, but he was hit by the car,” she said.
At KPC hospital, officials said Indranuj was recovering well.
“He has not complained of any problem with his vision. A team of five specialist doctors has examined him and found him haemodynamically stable (parameters like heart rate and blood pressure),” said an official.
“The wounds are healing well. He is alert and conscious and had his meals,” said the official.
Indranuj was brought to the hospital with a cut in the periorbital area (soft tissues around the eye like eyebrows and eyelids, and not the eyeball) around his left eye.