SRINAGAR: Kolkata Police on Tuesday arrested Jadavpur University (JU) student Soumyadeep Mahanta for his alleged role in putting up “Azad Kashmir” graffiti on the institute’s wall. Mahanta, who was already in police custody for a case of vandalism on campus, was granted bail by a city court but was “shown arrest” in the graffiti case to keep him in custody, reports appearing in the media said.
Mahanta had been arrested last week on charges of arson and vandalism following violence on March 1, when the office of a Trinamool Congress-affiliated non-teaching staff union was set on fire. He was in police remand until Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the police arrested another JU student, Souptik Chanda, a second-year civil engineering student, in connection with the same vandalism case. Chanda was among 14 students summoned as part of the investigation into the March 1 student unrest.
The summons triggered protests outside Jadavpur Police Station on Tuesday, with students alleging that the police were falsely implicating them to suppress dissent. “This is nothing but an attack on students’ right to protest,” one of the demonstrators said.
The March 1 unrest occurred during the annual general meeting of the Trinamool Congress-backed West Bengal College and University Professors’ Union, which was attended by West Bengal Education Minister Bratya Basu. Violence erupted after two students were allegedly injured when a vehicle in Basu’s convoy grazed past them. Police have since lodged an FIR against Basu, the driver of his vehicle, and Professor Om Prakash Mishra over the incident.
Earlier, on March 2, a former JU student was arrested from his rented flat in South Kolkata for allegedly being present on campus during the protest and taking part in vandalism. The individual, originally from Birbhum, currently works at an IT firm in Salt Lake.
The investigation into the graffiti and campus violence is ongoing.
