Trinamul on Saturday accused Visva-Bharati vice-chancellor Bidyut Chakrabarty of “unnecessarily politicising” a protest by students and family members of a Class XII pupil whose body was found hanging at a varsity hostel on Thursday.

“The VC involved the governor to unnecessarily politicise a protest he failed to handle.… He did not meet the bereaved family, who were not even informed before the body was sent for post-mortem. Their protest was legitimate,” said Chandranath Sinha, Trinamul’s Bolpur MLA and minister. “If he was feeling threatened, why didn’t he inform the police station, barely a few metres away from his residence?”

On Friday night, Chakrabarty sent an “SOS” to governor Jagdeep Dhankhar seeking security as the VC feared “a threat” to his life.

The governor immediately tweeted the VC’s SOS and informed Bengal chief secretary H.K. Dwivedi about it.

As the BJP linked the SOS to its narrative of “deteriorating law and order” in Bengal, Trinamul claimed it was Chakraborty’s failure in handling an “apolitical and spontaneous” student protest.

Sinha and his party colleagues, Suri MLA Bikash Roy Chowdhury and Nanoor MLA Bidhan Majhi, visited the home of deceased student Asim Das on Saturday. “The family explained the inhuman behaviour of the VC and the Visva-Bharati authorities.… The VC could have treated them with some compassion,” said Sinha.

Chakrabarty brushed off the charges. “I personally visited the varsity hospital as soon as I heard about the student’s death. I arranged everything for the family. A varsity vehicle and security personnel were provided for the parents to reach Bolpur subdivisional hospital where the post-mortem was done. I could not meet them during the protest in front of my residence as there were many people with bamboo sticks. It could have been a risk to my life,” he said.

His version was swatted away not only by Trinamul, but also some in the BJP, including national general-secretary Anupam Hazra.

“Death of a student in Visva-Bharati is a very painful incident. The VC should have met the parents of the departed student once and such a humane gesture is expected from at least a teacher (VC) ” Hazra tweeted on Saturday morning.

Chakrabarty justified getting in touch with the governor, also the varsity rector. He said he informed the office of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the chancellor of Visva-Bharati, about the “life risk”.

He added: “We sent an email to Santiniketan police and tried contacting the SP over phone but he didn’t take calls...”

“Police can’t enter the varsity campus till the authorities seek help in writing. As soon as we got the email, police cleared the area,” said SP Nagendra Nath Tripathi.

A senior police officer said the VC sent an email to police and the governor “simultaneously”.