Jadavpur University students hold a protest rally demanding the resignation of Education Minister Bratya Basu over the alleged injuries of two protestors during the Education Minister’s visit to the campus on 1st March, in Kolkata
| Photo Credit: ANI
The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday (March 5, 2025) directed the State government to file a comprehensive report on the incidents that happened during the visit of Education Minister Bratya Basu to Jadavpur University on March 1.
Stating that the court is bothered whether there was any intelligence failure on the part of the police about the agitation on that day in the university, Justice Tirthankar Ghosh observed he does not want people coming too close to a constitutional authority as in the “neighbouring country”.
Hearing a petition by some students about alleged police inaction over their complaints, Justice Ghosh asked whether the intelligence authorities informed the Minister about the agitation that was to take place at the varsity during his visit.
“I don’t want this to be an example in the rest of West Bengal,” Justice Ghosh observed orally.
The court said that under the garb of agitation, coming in the close vicinity of the Minister and manhandling him is not welcome.
The court said it does not want that in the close vicinity of the Minister, there would be people “as it is happening in the neighbouring country”.
It would be very difficult to reintroduce discipline among the citizens if such indiscipline spreads across the State, the HC said.
Justice Ghosh said that with the Assembly elections in the State due to be held next year, such incidents will multiply and the court does not want such things to happen.
Attorney General Kishore Dutta informed the court that one person had been arrested in connection with what happened at the varsity on March 1.
Comprehensive report
Justice Ghosh directed the State to prepare a comprehensive report on the series of events that took place on the campus that day.
The court directed the State to submit the report on March 12, when the matter will be heard again.
It was stated that seven FIRs were lodged at Jadavpur police station, two of which were filed suo motu by the police.
The petitioner’s lawyer Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya submitted that the suo motu FIR is silent about the injuries caused to a student because of rash and negligent driving by the Minister’s driver inside the campus while listing alleged obstruction of his vehicle by around 50 to 60 pupils.
He stated that the suo motu FIR also claimed that the said students damaged the Minister’s car and his security personnel’s vehicle and assaulted the driver of his vehicle.
It was also claimed that the students vandalised the union office and government property inside the campus and also set fire to an office near it.
The court asked the AG why the police did not lodge an FIR on an e-mail complaint by the injured student. It then directed the police to register the FIR by Wednesday itself.
Spread like an epidemic
During the hearing of the matter, the judge orally observed that such incidents may spread like an epidemic throughout the State and crowd management will become a problem.
He said that physical distance should have been maintained between the Minister, who is entitled to a certain category of security, and the agitators.
The court also observed that the events on that day could have been avoided if the police took responsibility.
Published – March 05, 2025 04:10 pm IST
