2 students of Visva Bharati beaten up, 2 men held: Police

KOLKATA: Two supporters of the Student Federation of India (SFI) were allegedly beaten up by members of RSS’S students’ wing Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad on the Visva Bharati University campus at Shantiniketan, West Bengal, late on Wednesday, police said on Thursday.

Two persons, Achintya Bagdi and Sabir Ali were arrested and remanded in judicial custody by a local court for ten days, police said. “Both claimed they are students of Visva Bharati. We are verifying,” said Kasturi Mukherjee, circle inspector, Bolpur.

Though the SFI has alleged that Bagdi and Ali are ABVP members, the latter has refuted the allegations, police said.

Bagdi said that he was a supporter of the Trinamool Congress while the party denied he was a member. Students said both Bagdi and Ali were former leaders of the TMC’S student wing.

One of the injured students, Swapnanil Mukherjee, said, “Last night, when I was returning home, some ABVP members attacked me with batons and bamboo sticks. I could identify at least three of them – Bagdi, Ali and Sulabh Karmakar – and they are ABVP members.” The other injured student, Falguni Pan, said, “They attacked us even in the hospital where we took Mukherjee for treatment.”

SFI Visva Bharati unit leader Somnath Sau alleged that the assault was a fallout of the demonstration the Left students held during Dasgupta’s visit to the campus January 8.

BJP state unit president Dilip Ghosh said, “I wonder whether ABVP has such strength in Bengal that it can launch an attack inside a university...”