“I went to save my friends after the scuffle broke out; that’s when a man shoved me in the chest,” said Purvi, a member of the Student Council at Kolkata’s Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute. She alleged that female students were threatened with the words, “If you are still alive, we will deal with you inside within seven days.”

Purvi is one of several students who allege they were chased, beaten and stoned on Sunday after they protested an event organised on campus by the Akhil Bharatiya Grahak Panchayat, an RSS-linked body that focuses on consumer rights. The ABGP denies the charge and says its members retaliated only after being attacked.

The clash at the government-run institute left several students injured. Three FIRs have been filed so far. The institute’s administration had allowed the ABGP to use the main hall on Sunday for a four-hour state-level meeting. A section of the students say they were not consulted and learned of the booking only that morning. Nachiket, a member of students’ representative body Student Council, claimed no posters about the event were displayed at the gate, and that the council’s calls to the registrar went unanswered. The students said they then went to the hall to put up posters against the event, and the confrontation followed.

Dean Sukanta Majumdar told Newslaundry that the question of who organised the event would be addressed later, and that permission was granted under the institute’s policy. “We are trying to restore peace. We have lodged a complaint with the police.” Registrar Deepak Kumar did not respond to calls seeking comment.

SRFTI vice-chancellor Santosh Ajmera, who was appointed a day or two before the incident, told a press conference that students had told him they did not start the violence and that their safety was his priority. “I believe such incidents should never happen in any educational institution,” he said.

The students’ accounts

The students claim they were targeted for........

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