Jadavpur University unrest case not heard; Cop report ‘ready’
Telegraph | 14 March 2025
A state report on what transpired at Jadavpur University when education minister Bratya Basu visited the campus on March 1 and violence erupted was not submitted in Calcutta High Court on Wednesday.
The court rose at 3.30pm because of a “full-court meeting” of the judges. By then, the case had not come up in Justice Tirthankar Ghosh’s court.
Sources said the meeting was convened to bid farewell to Justice Joymalya Bagchi, the Calcutta High Court judge recently elevated to the Supreme Court.
A court source said the case could be heard on Thursday.
The state’s report should have what police found on examining the complainants, the arrested accused, witnesses and others booked in the case, including Basu.
The police said the report was ready. “We will file it whenever the court hears the case. The report has two broad parts. The incidents on March 1 and the intelligence inputs about the same,” a senior officer at Lalbazar said.
On March 5, Justice Ghosh had asked if there was an “intelligence failure” on March 1.
Justice Ghosh expressed concern that a crowd could come so close to a minister, a “constitutional authority” with a security cover.
Phone plea
Hearing another petition that accused the police of harassing the students by sending summons for interrogation in connection with the March 1 violence, Justice Ghosh declined intervention.
“Come at a later stage. In the nascent stage, I don’t want to interfere in the investigation.... You are an FIR-named accused,” the judge said.
The petitioner, SFI member Uddipan Kundu, named in an FIR, had sought the quashing of proceedings.
“I have cooperated.... I was examined by the police for one-and-a-half hours. Then, another officer asked me to hand over my mobile. That I refused. So they accused me of non-cooperation. The very next day, they served me another notice... asking me to bring my identity card and mobile,” the petitioner said.
Justice Ghosh asked the state’s counsel, Swapan Bandyopadhyay, to file an affidavit and Kundu’s counsel Shamim Ahmed to respond.