BJP Youth Wing Demands CBI Probe Into Violence at Visva Bharati
In a statement, the university condemned the violence as well as “police inaction”.
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A delegation of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), the youth wing of BJP, met West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankar on Saturday, 22 August, reported news agency PTI. The delegation then submitted a memorandum demanding a CBI probe into the vandalism at Visva Bharati University on 17 August.
BYJM state president Soumitra Khan said:
Soumitra Khan is also a BJP Member of Parliament.
According to PTI, he told reporters that it is disheartening to see the famed seat of learning founded by Rabindra Nath Tagore being ransacked by a frenzied mob trying to encroach upon the university's land.
WHAT HAD HAPPENED?
On 17 August, locals and traders' unions went on a rampage in the university campus in the Birbhum district of West Bengal opposing a wall that was being built on the university grounds. The wall was being constructed to prevent trespassers into the ground, the venue for the 125-year-old annual Poush Mela, which was cancelled by the university this year.
VISVA BHARATI UNIVERSITY’S STATEMENT
A day after violence ensued at Visva Bharati University in West Bengal, the university authorities asked for a CBI probe into the matter.
In a statement, the university said that it condemns "the vandalism that took place for three hours at the behest of a people's representative MLA Shri Naresh Bauri".
Bauri is a Trinamool Congress MLA from Dubrajpur.
It also condemned "police inaction".
The statement further said that the administration will observe a 12-hour fast to protest against the violence and vandalism on 17 August.
Meanwhile, the university has also filed an FIR against Bauri and 12 others.
Violence ensued on 17 August as a crowd led by local Trinamool Congress leaders demolished two gates of the Visva Bharati University and also ransacked construction material stocked for building the wall on the Poush Mela grounds by the university.
Eight people have been arrested so far for the vandalism.
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