Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday called up a college teacher, who was beaten up by alleged Trinamul student leaders, to express “regret” for Wednesday’s attack. She also asked him not to feel “scared”.

Mamata sent the party’s Hooghly district chief to Konnagar’s Nabagram Hiralal Paul College and the leader fell at Bengali teacher Subrata Chatterjee’s feet to apologise for the attack.

The two students accused of the attack have been arrested and charged with several sections of the IPC, including two that are non-bailable.

They allegedly took the lead in attacking Chatterjee at the college’s main gate on Wednesday for standing by his students who refused to chant pro-Trinamul slogans.

The teacher was pinned down to the ground and punched, said witnesses.

Chatterjee said around 11.15am on Thursday he got a call from Nabanna and was told that Mamata wanted to speak to him.

“She expressed regret and said that the students responsible for the attack had been expelled and arrested. She told me that I should not feel scared and the administration was with me. She also said such incidents should not take place,” he said.

“The chief minister gave me a number and told me to give her a call whenever I wanted,” he added.

The two students who had been arrested are Sandip Pal and Bijoy Sarkar. Bijoy is a resident of Howrah’s Liluah and Sandip lives in Konnagar’s Nabagram.

Two hours after the chief minister’s call, Dilip Yadav, who heads the Hooghly district unit of Trinamul, arrived at the college in Konnagar, about 20km from the heart of Calcutta.

He first touched the teacher’s feet and then said with folded hands: “No one can support this kind of conduct with you. The chief minister has sent me. Aami aapnader kachhe khama chaite esechhi. Jodi aamar doler lok anyay kore thake, as district president aamakey khama chaite hobe (I have come to apologise to you. If someone from my party has done any injustice to anyone, I am bound to apologise.)”

During the interaction with Yadav, the teacher complained to him about the local councillor who had allegedly instigated Trinamul student leaders to attack him.

“He frequently lands up on the campus and provokes students against teachers. I am not going to name him publicly. Aapnara nischoi ke janen. Naam bolle aar college-e dhukte parbo na. O uttejito na korle aamar dharona, ei chhelera aamader marto na (You must be knowing him. If I name him, I won’t be able to enter the college. Had he not instigated the students, I think that these boys would not have assaulted me),” he said.

Accompanied by Uttarpara MLA Prabir Ghosal, the Trinamul leader assured the teacher that he should not feel scared now that the chief minister had intervened. Following an assurance from Ghosal and Yadav, Chatterjee said the councillor was Tanmoy Deb of ward No. 12 of Konnagar Municipality.

“We have expelled them (the arrested youths) from the party and show-caused a local Trinamul councillor Tanmoy Deb for his alleged presence during the attack on the teacher,” Yadav later said.

The accused — Sandip and Bijoy — had taken admission in the 2015-16 academic session.

Students of BA General degree courses, the two were supposed to graduate last year. But as they had flunked the exam, they were treated as casual students, said college principal Srikanta Samanta.

A casual student does not have to attend classes with regular students, but can come to the campus only to write the supplementary test.

The duo were produced in a Serampore court on Thursday and sent to two days’ police custody.

“We have arrested two persons and took them in our custody to find out others involved in the attack. We will also investigate whether there was a conspiracy behind the attack on the teacher. We will also see the video footage, which shows the teacher being beaten up, to find those involved in the incident,” Humayun Kabir, the Chandannagar police commissioner told Metro.

It’s a rare instance in Bengal that the chief minister is calling up a teacher who has been beaten up by Trinamul Chhatra Parishad leaders.

On January 5, 2012, when the principal of Raiganj College in North Dinajpur, Dilip Dey Sarkar, was beaten up by alleged Trinamul activists after he rejected their proposal to reschedule students’ union elections, she had said: “Chhoto chhoto chhelera bhul kore phelechhe (young boys have made a mistake).”

The teachers of the Konnagar college had boycotted their classes on Thursday to protest the attack. “They will resume classes from tomorrow,” Samanta said.

“We will be back in classes on Friday. But we will keep a watch on what action is being taken,” said Chatterjee.