JU violence: Petition in Calcutta HC accuses police of biased probe

A petition was filed before a single bench of the Calcutta High Court on 3 March, Monday, accusing the Kolkata Police of conducting a biased and one-sided investigation of a ruckus at Jadavpur University on Saturday, 1 March.

Two students of the university were injured and hospitalised after allegedly being hit by the vehicle of West Bengal education minister Bratya Basu.

The petitioner has alleged that all seven FIRs filed in the matter had been against the students of the university protesting on the campus on Saturday afternoon, two of which were registered suo motu by police and five others based on complaints filed by the Trinamool Congress-affiliated West Bengal College and University Professors Association (WBCUPA).

However, the petitioners alleged that not a single complaint from the student was entertained by the police, despite two of their students being injured and hospitalised following the ruckus.

The single judge bench of Justice Tirthankar Ghosh had admitted the petition, and the matter is likely to come up for hearing on Tuesday.

The ruckus broke out on Saturday when the Minister's car was allegedly stopped after it entered the campus, and a scuffle followed. The students were demanding immediate elections for the university’s students’ council.

The agitating students alleged that while Basu decided to leave the campus in the face of the protests by students, his vehicle deliberately hit the two agitating students, following which they were severely injured and had to be hospitalised.

Amid the protests, the minister received minor injuries and fell sick. He was taken to the state-run S.S.K.M. Medical College and Hospital and was released later.

Meanwhile, amidst the strike called by the SFI (Students' Federation of India), the Uchcha Madhyamik (Higher Secondary) Examination conducted by the West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education began on Monday and proceeded peacefully as the examination centres were kept out of the purview of the strike.