A first-year student at South Calcutta Law College and his father and brother were allegedly assaulted by a group of students and some outsiders on Wednesday when they had gone to the campus to take up a ragging complaint with the authorities.
The first-year student had alleged that his seniors had “threatened and bullied him”, said an officer of Kasba police station.
The student’s father lodged a police complaint late on Wednesday, the officer said.
“The complaint says fifth-year students allegedly threatened and bullied the first-year student to make him join the students’ union and pay subscriptions,” said a police officer.
An official of the college said the Trinamul Congress Students’ Union is in control of the union.
The police complaint says that on December 2, the first-year student was “picked up” from the classroom and taken to the common room on the campus, where he was slapped and punched by a group of students.
The junior lodged a complaint with the college authorities on December 5.
The authorities called a meeting of the governing body on December 7 and it was attended by the first-year student and his elder brother and parents.
The brother, a lawyer at Calcutta High Court, said: “We were not heard at the meeting. We were assaulted physically by students’ union members and some suspected former students. It all happened in front of the teacher-in-charge, Nayna Chatterji, and the president of the college’s governing body, Ashok Deb. The attackers snatched my mobile phone as well as my brother’s.... The two of us were locked up beside the principal’s room for 15 minutes.”
Calls and text messages from this newspaper to the teacher-in-charge went unanswered.
In an interview with the TV channel ABP Ananda on Thursday afternoon, she said: “I have a lot to say in governing body meetings. But I’m often silenced by one-sided decisions.”
Asked who was imposing the decisions, she said: “GB president Ashok Deb, MLA (Trinamul MLA from Budge Budge). He often does not want to listen.”
She added: “If the GB does not cooperate with me, if the GB does not allow me to tell the truth, I do not want to stay in the post.”
Repeated calls and text messages from this newspaper to Deb failed to elicit any response.
The police complaint lodged by the father of the first-year student on Wednesday night says that after the student and his family members left the college, they were beaten up again outside the campus.
The family said they were rescued by the police.
The complaint letter says the first-year student is scared about his safety in the college. The letter requests the police to treat the “complaint as an FIR”.
An officer said they were “examining the complaint”. A case of assault and theft has been started based on the complaint, the officer said.
South Calcutta Law College is affiliated to Calcutta University. Asked whether the university would intervene, CU interim vice-chancellor Asish Chatterjee said: “The university does not interfere in the administrative matters of a college. If the student lodges a complaint with the university authorities, we will look into it.”
Trinankur Bhattacharya, president of the Trinamul Congress Chhatra Parishad, said: “We are sending a fact-finding team to the college to find out what happened. After getting the report, we will comment.”
The high court is hearing a case on alleged ragging at IIT Kharagpur filed by the parents of a deceased student. The parents have alleged that their son is a victim of ragging.
