KOLKATA: A section of the students of Presidency University today protested during the visit of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to the varsity and later gheraoed Vice-chancellor Anuradha Lohia alleging police assaulted them.
As the chief minister entered the campus to attend a function she was greeted with slogans and black flags by a section of students.
Speaking at the programme in the University, Banerjee said, "They have invited me. Why shouldn't I go (to the campus)? There is no reason to think that everyone should like me. But why won't I come?
Without naming the students, she said, "There is a word called courtesy in a democracy. Everyone has to maintain discipline."
Banerjee announced that Presidency University would soon have a campus at Kurseong in Darjeeling district and said that her government would provide Rs 118 crore for another campus at Rajarhat in the city fringes.
The protest by a section of students continued when the chief minister left the campus.
The students said they wanted to talk to the chief minister for punishment to those responsible for the ransack of heritage Baker Laboratory of the varsity during a 2013 incident but were not allowed to talk to her.
"We were protesting peacefully inside our campus when some policemen assaulted some of students. Eight of us were injured," Trisha Chanda, general secretary of the students union, told PTI.
The students later went to the VC's room and started an indefinite gherao in the evening.
"We told the VC of whatever has happened but she is not willing to accept that the police thrashed us. We seek an apology from the police and the resignation of our VC for non-action," the student leader said.
Lohia said she is not aware of the incident. "I do not know what has happened. They told me that some students were beaten. I tried to contact the police".
As the students locked the main gate of the college, state Education Minister Partho Chatterjee had to take a taxi to leave the campus through the back gate.