A second-year student of Jadavpur University’s civil engineering department was arrested on Tuesday in connection with the arson on the campus hours after education minister Bratya Basu’s visit on March 1.
Police identified the arrested student as Souptik Chanda. They said he was one of the students whose involvement was ascertained through video footage and photographs showing him “in action”.
With this, the number of students and former students who have been arrested in connection with the violence on the campus on March 1 rose to three.
The two others have obtained bail.
Earlier, the police had arrested former student Sahil Ali, now employed with a software company, and first-year philosophy student Soumyadeep Mahanto in connection with the same case that involved ransacking and setting fire to a non-teaching employees’ office on the campus.
Several students, including Chanda and Anirban Sadhukhan, were summoned to Jadavpur police station on Tuesday. After several hours of questioning, Chanda was formally arrested.
As the students were grilled for several hours, many students and former students gathered outside the police station demanding the “immediate release” of the two. Later, when the news of Chanda’s arrest emerged, many alleged that his only fault was that he had “complied with the police summons”.
Many apprehended that Sadhukhan too would be arrested. However, he stepped out of the police station late on Tuesday evening.
Chanda has been booked under sections of criminal trespassing, attempt to murder, use of fire or explosives to damage dwellings and under sections prevention of damage to public property and that of the West Bengal Maintenance of Public Property Act.
“We are strictly going by the evidence before making any arrest. We request all the students to cooperate with the probe,” said an officer of Jadavpur police station.
Chanda will be produced in court on Wednesday.
VC letter for elections
Jadavpur University wrote to the state government on Tuesday requesting that the university be allowed to hold campus elections, said vice-chancellor Bhaskar Gupta.
JU has not had student elections for over five years.
The vice-chancellor said they had always been in favour of campus polls.
The state government had earlier said it was modifying the election regulations, hence the delay.
The latest campus unrest in JU broke out when some students heckled the education minister Bratya Basu on the campus on March 1 demanding the resumption of campus polls.