Union minister Babul Supriyo was prevented from leaving the Jadavpur University campus on Thursday evening by students, prompting Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankhar to rush to the institute and ask the state chief secretary to take action.

Chief secretary Malay De assured the governor — the chancellor of the varsity — that the city police commissioner had been directed to act.

Supriyo, the junior Union minister for environment, forest and climate change, was shown black flags and allegedly 'heckled' by the students. He was on the institute’s campus to address a seminar organised by Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad — the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s student wing.

At the time of this report, he was being held up by protesting students who were preventing him from reaching his car.

The incident is a very serious matter, Dhankhar said.

Raj Bhavan sources said Dhankhar had spoken to chief secretary De and asked him to take immediate steps to break the impasse.

Earlier, Supriyo had alleged that he was “heckled” by the students. Describing the behaviour of the agitating students as “absolutely deplorable”, he alleged that the protesters were trying to “disturb peace” at the institute.

Sources at the varsity said vice-chancellor Suranjan Das had reached the spot and tried reasoning with the students.