A state-aided college teacher attached to Santipur College in Nadia was on Friday allegedly beaten up by a section of students with the support of outsiders as he refused to award some construction work on the campus to a contractor of their choice.

Ramkrishna Mondal, 51, who teaches history, was allegedly punched and hit with firearms by a group of youths a little after he entered the teachers' room for a break after a class.

A group of around nine students asked Mondal to step out of the teachers' room. As soon as he came out, they began to punch him in the face, chest and head.

Mondal fell unconscious. Teachers rushed him to Santipur State General Hospital as he was bleeding profusely from head injuries.

"I came out as the youths wanted to talk to me. I was suspicious, but still I stepped out to meet them. They had been disturbing me for the past few days, but it was beyond my imagination that they could attack me like this. Such humiliation is painful," Mondal told The Telegraph.

Two non-teaching staff were also allegedly beaten up by the students when they tried to rescue Mondal from getting thrashed.

The students also allegedly blocked the college entrance to stage a demonstration when Mondal was being taken to the hospital, accusing him of abusing a girl student.

To avoid fresh tension, Mondal's colleagues used a back door to take him to the hospital.

Sources in the college said that Mondal earned the wrath of a section of the students who do not attend classes, and local Trinamool leaders ever since he was appointed as the liaison officer by the governing body of the college to monitor all developmental work on the campus. In the recent past, he played an instrumental role in issuing work orders to contractors through the e-tender route.

"I tried to bring transparency in the execution of projects through e-tendering. The lowest bidder was awarded the work. But some students, with proximity to local contractors, did not like it. They insisted that the work should go to contractors of their choice. But I refused. It was an illegal demand," Mondal added.

College sources said Mondal had also objected to depriving genuine candidates of a seat in favour of admitting students with political recommendations.

College principal Suchismita Sanyal acknowledged Mondal's positive contribution to the campus, but claimed ignorance about the actual reason behind this attack on him.

"As an academic, I am hurt to witness a teacher being beaten up by students inside campus. I don't know the reason behind the attack. Let the police find out the reason behind the attack," Sanyal said over the phone.

The police started a probe based on Mondal's complaint.

The history teacher has named four youths in his complaint apart from mentioning the role of some unidentified ones.

A probe team of Santipur police visited the campus and retrieved CCTV footage.

An officer of Santipur police station said: "The CCTV footage is being scanned to identify the perpetrators. No person has been arrested yet."