Calcutta HC directs police to register FIR on complaint filed by JU injured student

Kolkata, March 5 Calcutta High Court on Wednesday directed Kolkata Police to register an FIR based on the complaint filed by Indranuj Roy, the student of Jadavpur University (JU) during the ruckus within the university campus on March 1 after being hit “allegedly and deliberately” by the vehicle of West Bengal Education Minister Bratya Basu.

The single-judge bench of Justice Tirthankar Ghosh gave this direction acting on a petition filed in his bench earlier this week accusing the Kolkata Police of conducting a “biased and one-sided probe” in the March 1 ruckus within the university campus.

In the petition, it was alleged that all the seven FIRs filed were either registered sumo motu by the cops against the students or on the basis of the complaints filed against the students by the Trinamool Congress-affiliated West Bengal College & University Professors’ Association (WBCUPA).

Justice Ghosh also directed the state government to file a detailed report in the matter. The next hearing in the matter will be on March 12, while the state government and the petitioner will have to file their respective affidavits in the matter to the court on the same day.

During the hearing, Justice Ghosh also made some observations on the intelligence failure on the part of the Special Branch of the Kolkata Police that they did not have prior information about students’ agitation while the Education Minister was there.

Drawing a reference to the recent students’ movement in Bangladesh, Justice Ghosh also observed that if such intelligence failures continue, the situation in the state might turn into a serious matter as it happened in the neighboring country.

The ruckus broke out within the university campus on March 1 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, 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 & Hospital and was discharged later.

--IANS

src/dan

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