Three men, who were part of an ABVP agitation on Monday to protest the alleged assault on Union minister Babul Supriyo in Jadavpur University last week, have been arrested and charged with rioting, deterring public servant from performing duty and damaging public property.
Officers of Lake police station have arrested the trio and charged them under sections that, if proved, could lead to a maximum punishment of three years of imprisonment.
Sources said police identified them after analysing footage from the CCTV cameras installed near the spot at Selimpur, where police had set up the barricade.
Senior officers said none of the three arrested youths was student. Of the three, one was a Class IX dropout, while another was unemployed and would only participate in political agitations. One of them is a resident of Topsia, while the two others are from Anandapur. The police arrested them from their home.
Around 500-600 supporters of the ABVP had participated in a march scheduled from Golpark to Jadavpur University but were stopped by the police at Selimpur.
A handful of the supporters had tried to break through the police cordon but had failed and retorted to shouting slogans demanding action against the alleged illegal detention and physical abuse of the central minister at the university last Thursday.
Last week, a group of alleged ABVP supporters had blocked a stretch of Raja SC Mullick Road in front of the Jadavpur University Gate No. 4, and burned tyres and cycles as a mark of protest against the alleged assault on Supriyo by the students.
Three police cases have been started in connection with the incidents at the university. However, no one has been arrested in any of those cases till Tuesday.
Cops, apprehending a re-run of the show of vandalism, had deployed over 2,000 personnel on Monday throughout the route of the march and put up blockades at Selimpur so that the ABVP agitators could not cross Selimpur.
“We could barely see any students in the so-called students’ agitation. Most of them were hired to create trouble and swell the ranks,” an officer said.
The arrested trio were identified as Suraj Kumar Singh, 30, a resident of Topsia Road, and Sunny Mandal, 23, and Subrata Haldar, 29, both residents of Sarat Malancha Abason in Anandapur.