A group of Visva-Bharati students protesting outside vice-chancellor Bidyut Chakrabarty’s residence was thrashed and manhandled by the university’s security guards as Santiniketan police allegedly remained mute spectators on Tuesday.

The students had been agitating in front of the VC’s bungalow for almost a fortnight. When Chakrabarty tried to come out of his residence on Tuesday, some of the protesters threw themselves in front of his car to block his way.

Although Chakrabarty’s vehicle returned to the residence immediately, varsity security guards used force and manhandled the students to remove the blockade.

“My classmates and I were beaten up by security guards. This is Gurudev’s (Rabindranath Tagore) Visva Bharati. He (the VC) should have met us and discussed our complaints,” said agitating student leader Meenakshi Bhattacharya.

The agitation started after the authorities declared that a student, who was previously involved in protests, would not be allowed to take admission to the university, while another girl was prevented from submitting her research paper.

Moreover, the university has sent letters to the parents of the agitating students complaining about their conduct. These varsity decisions further angered a section of students, professors, and Santiniketan residents.

Chakrabarty had recently cited the students’ protest outside his bungalow as the reason for not turning up at a meeting convened by Visva-Bharati to discuss this year’s Pous Mela.

Bolpur MLA and minister Chandranath Sinha and Birbhum district magistrate Bidhan Ray were kept waiting for over an hour for the VC to turn up but he didn’t.

Thereafter, the issue of holding Pous Mela, a tradition initiated by Rabindranath Tagore’s father Maharshi Debendranath Tagore in 1894, reached Calcutta High Court.

A division bench of the court, headed by Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava, on Tuesday, refused to deliver any order regarding organising Pous Mela on Visva Bharati grounds. The court, however, asked the university to reconsider its decision.

The bench made it clear that only the university could decide whether the fair would be held on its grounds.

While the state administration, the Bolpur municipality, and the local people are in favour of holding the fair on varsity grounds, Chakrabarty is against it.