The overnight siege by hundreds of students at Jadavpur University erupted into a major controversy in Kolkata on Wednesday as police used force to disperse students and release the University’s Vice Chancellor, other authorities and teachers held up in the main administrative building.
The police had detained about 35 students who were present at the spot and the students, in turn, boycotted the classes at all departments of the University. Though gherao and such siege is not unusual at the University it was the intervention of police that aggravated the situation.
The University’s Vice Chancellor Abhijit Chakrabarti admitted that he sought intervention from the police as the students held up the authorities and teachers in an unjustified manner. The Vice Chancellor also expressed fears that he would have been attacked had he not sought police protection. “ I would have died had the police not come,” Prof Chakrabarti told journalists.
The students were demanding that the internal complain committee set up by the University to probe sexual harassment of a second year student should include a retied judge, which the authorities did not agree to. The siege by the students started late on Tuesday evening and continued till late in the night.
At about 2 am on Wednesday, police resorted to force to lift the blockade. The students alleged that the power supply to the main entrance to the administrative building where students had laid siege was switched off.
Police personnel in uniform and also in plain clothes allegedly beat up the students. Video grab of the incident in which the students are being dragged by police have gone viral on social networking site. The police, who forcibly lifted the blockade, also molested female students, the students alleged. A number of the students were injured in the incident.
The teachers of the university under the banner of Jadavpur University Teachers Association ( JUTA) have condemned the use of force against agitating students and said that the Vice Chancellor did not take teachers into confidence before seeking intervention of the police.
Civil rights activists have also condemned the use of force on protesting students.
