Police assault students
Several students of the prestigious Jadavpur University here had to be hospitalised after police allegedly beat them up on early Wednesday for laying siege to the vice chancellor's office seeking a fresh inquiry into the purported sexual harassment of a female student.
With the authorities drawing all-round flak, a senior State Minister conceded that the police should have been "more restrained".
While 35 students were arrested but later released by police, there have been allegations that "outsiders" had teamed up with the security personnel in assaulting the students in which several of the female pupils were even molested.
Police crackdown has attracted widespread criticism and condemnation with students, teachers, alumnus, eminent personalities and political leaders demanding the resignation of vice-chancellor (VC) Abhijit Chakrabarty, who claimed he was compelled to call police fearing for his life.
Rubbishing students' claims that they were assaulted by police, Chakrabarty said that instead the police and he himself were under attack.