JU ex-student granted conditional bail in connection with March 1 campus violence
Telegraph | 13 March 2025
The former Jadavpur University student who was arrested on March 2 in connection with the arson and violence on the JU campus on March 1 got conditional bail from Alipore court on Wednesday.
Mohammad Sahil Ali, 25, who works for a leading software company, was in police custody. He had moved the bail petition on March 3.
S.K. Sharma, the additional chief judicial magistrate of Alipore court, granted the interim bail against ₹5,000, said an official of the court.
The court has told Ali, a resident of Mohammad Bazar in Birbhum who now lives in a rented apartment in Bijoygarh in the city, to appear twice daily before the investigating officer of Jadavpur police station till July 29.
The case will be heard next on July 30.
A former student of the construction engineering department, Ali was arrested when a leader of a pro-Trinamool non-teaching employees’ union on the JU campus lodged an FIR after the union office was set ablaze late on March 1.
Earlier that day, education minister Bratya Basu was allegedly heckled by some Left and ultra-Left students when he went to the campus to attend the annual general meeting of a pro-Trinamool teachers’ organisation.
“Police had booked him under Section 109 of Bharatiya Nyay Sanghita (BNS) that deals with attempt to murder, but he cannot be booked under that section. Police did not consult the university about the charred items that cops submitted in its seizure list. The university is the custodian of those items. The court found merit in our contention and granted him bail,” said Supreyo Rakshit, the lawyer who represented Ali.
While opposing the bail petition, the public prosecutor requested that Ali be remanded in police custody till March 15. The court, however, rejected the prayer.
Last week, JU students organised a march on the campus demanding the release of the former pupil.
They had painted graffiti seeking the release of the former student and approached JU authorities to take steps so Ali could get bail.
A group of JU students were in the courtroom when the case was being heard on Wednesday.
Debarghya Jash, an MTech student of JU who was present in the courtroom, said: “The bail shows police are trying to implicate JU students, present and past, on unsubstantiated charges.”