Massive chaos broke out at Kolkata’s Jadavpur University campus on Friday after a violent clash broke out between supporters of Students Federation of India (SFI) and We the Independent (WTI).
According to eyewitnesses present on spot, a confrontation erupted over the election of student representatives to the Internal Complaints Committee (ICC). As tensions escalated between the two groups, professors Rajeshwar Sinha and Lalit Madhav stepped in to defuse the situation. They were allegedly assaulted in the process.
Both teachers were taken to hospital. Madhav was discharged after receiving first aid, while Sinha, who sustained injuries near his eyes, remains under treatment. One of the professors also had his spectacles broken during the scuffle.
According to a report filed by The Telegraph, the police confirmed that they were alerted to unrest on the campus but did not receive any formal request for intervention from the university authorities. “We heard about the incident. But we did not receive any communication from the authorities. Neither the university nor any individual has lodged any complaint with Jadavpur police station,” a senior officer of Kolkata Police’s south-suburban division said. As per protocol, officers cannot enter the campus unless formally requisitioned.
The clash reportedly followed campaigning by SFI members in first-year undergraduate science classes earlier in the day, where they advocated holding the long-pending ICC elections. Subsequently, two students were allegedly summoned to the Science Union room by WTI members and questioned.
In a Facebook statement, SFI’s Jadavpur University unit claimed that unrest stemmed from the continued “undemocratic” control of the Science and Engineering faculty unions by WTI and DSF, despite the last students’ union elections having been held in 2020. It alleged that first-year Chemistry students were threatened and that “WTI leaders, without any provocation, physically assaulted” SFI members when they intervened. The organisation further claimed that professors attempting to restore order were attacked by members of WTI, AFSA and DSF.
WTI, however, offered a sharply different version. In a post by the Science Faculty Students’ Union, which it controls, the group alleged that SFI members attacked general students during a poster campaign for “Sanskriti 2026” at the Science–Arts crossing. It claimed several students were beaten, allegations of molestation surfaced, and professors who intervened were pushed. The post described the episode as an assault on the campus’s democratic environment and demanded strict action.
In response to the altercation at the university campus, Vice Chancellor Chiranjib Bhattacharjee described the episode as unprecedented. “This incident is the rarest of rare. The teachers had gone there in the interest of the students and the university. The teachers were beaten up there. What could be more unfortunate than this?” he said. No formal complaint had been lodged with the police till Friday evening.
