Tension gripped Kolkata's Jadavpur University on Thursday after a few students were injured in a clash between the activists of Hindu Jagran Manch and CPM over the vandalisation of Shyama Prasad's Mookherjee's statue. The Kolkata Police later arrested seven people in this connection.

According to Times Now, an activist of the Hindu Jagran Manch had taken out a protest march towards the Shyama Prasad Mookherjee's statue which was objected to by CPM's student wing  Students' Federation of India (SFI).

File image of Jadavpur University. Wikimedia Commons

File image of Jadavpur University. Wikimedia Commons

According to CNN-News18, several policemen too were injured in the violence.

The bust of Mookherjee, the Bharatiya Jana Sangh founder, was found damaged in Kolkata’s Chittaranjan Das Park on Wednesday. The incident happened two days after Vladmir Lenin's bust was toppled in Tripura's Belonia town, allegedly by Bharatiya Janata Party workers.

Five of the seven people arrested are reportedly members of a Left-wing group called Radical, India Today said.

Speaking to The Telegraph, city police commissioner Rajiv Kumar said, "Six men and one woman in their early 20s who tried to deface the bust of Syama Prasad Mookerjee have been arrested by the Kolkata Police and strong legal action have been initiated. No vandalism would be tolerated."

Those arrested said that they had defaced and vandalised Mookerjee's bust to protest against the pulling down of communist icon Lenin's statues in Tripura, police said. They also raised slogans against the Tripura incidents.

On Thursday, clashes had erupted between workers of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Trinamool Congress (TMC) in Kolkata.

BJP had accused Trinamool workers of attacking its men who had gathered to "purify" Mookerjee's statue. "Our activists went there to peacefully purify and cleanse the statue of Mookherjee with milk and Ganga-jal (water from the Ganga). But police stopped them and the Trinamool goons beat them up severely", state BJP chief Dilip Ghosh said.

With inputs from PTI


Published Date: Mar 08, 2018 20:22 PM | Updated Date: Mar 08, 2018 20:22 PM