Why such political vendetta by the state government against a student activist; is it the person Hindol who is being targeted or the real target is the institution – Jadavpur University? Is Mamata copying the playbook of Amit Shah of criminalizing protestors and trying to make Umar Khalid out of Hindol? The answers are not yet clear. But the signs are indeed alarming.
Groundxero | Aug 17, 2025
The arrest of Hindol Mazumdar upon his arrival in India and the orders to remand him in police custody is not just an instance of autocratic and political vendetta on the part of the powers that be. The manner of his arrest and the associated rhetoric is an alarming sign for the democratic rights of individuals and political activists in the state. It bears an uncanny resemblance of the state gradually drifting into a police state.
Hindol, an ex-Jadavpur University B-Tech Pharmacy student and former organiser of the Democratic Youth-Students’ Association (DYSA) – a mass organisation based in West Bengal – is currently a research scholar at a Spanish university. He was arrested upon his arrival in Delhi from Spain on Thursday (August 13) for his summer holidays. His arrest was on the basis of a lookout notice issued against him by the Kolkata police in connection with a violent student protest at Jadavpur University (JU) on March 1, 2025. Hindol was in Spain at that time.
Hindol Mazumdar, ex-Jadavpur University student
Hindol was first detained by the Immigration Department at the airport and then by the Delhi Police. He was brought to Kolkata on a transit remand and produced before Alipore court on Friday. The court denied him bail and sent him on remand to police custody for three days till August 18. The Police alleged that Hindol Majumdar was the ‘prime conspirator’ and ‘chief instigator’ of the violent protests by Left-affiliated student groups at JU on March 1, during which the state education minister Bratya Basu was gheraoed and heckled, physically manhandled and his car vandalized by the protesting students.
The government prosecutor argued in court that the fact that Hindol Mazumdar was in Spain during the March incident at JU doesn’t mean he has no role in the incident. He compared him to Aftab Ansari who planned and masterminded the 2002 terrorist attack on the American Centre in Kolkata while sitting in Dubai.
The TMC spokesperson went another step ahead. He justified Hindol’s arrest by saying that the fact that he is a meritorious student and a research scholar cannot be an excuse to not arrest him, as Bin Laden also was quite meritorious.
So, both the TMC government and the party are comparing the student agitation in JU on March 1 to terrorist attacks and Hindol Mazumdar to dreaded terrorists like Aftab Ansari and Bin Laden. Although it sounds ridiculous and there might be a design behind these utterances, let us see what actually happened on March 1 at JU.
West Bengal Education Minister Bratya Basu visited JU campus on March 1, 2025. He went there to attend a meeting of the Trinamool Congress-affiliated professors’ body, WBCUPA. He faced demonstrations from various Left-wing student groups, who were demanding that the students’ union elections pending for five years be conducted at the earliest. The students gheraoed him and raised slogans surrounding him. They refused to let him leave the campus without giving them a firm commitment regarding the process and date of the holding of student elections. Bratya Basu alleged that he was physically heckled by the students and his car was vandalised. While trying to leave the campus hurriedly, the students ran after his car, a few climbed on its bonnet but he was able to get out.
Protesting student trying to prevent Education Minister from leaving University
A video of the incident went viral which showed that while driving his way through the protest cordon, Indranuj Roy, a JU student from the Revolutionary Students Front (RSF) was hit by the education minister’s car. Indranuj received a head injury and the bleeding was so severe that he had to be admitted to the ICU. A few more students were also injured. The injured students were admitted to the hospital that day. The students alleged that the minister’s car deliberately ran over them to break their cordon. The enraged student vandalized the TMC’s office inside the university. A state-wide student strike was announced in protest.
A rally by students of JU against the minister allegedly car running over them
The police registered five FIRs in the incident, and a former JU student was arrested on charges of being present on the campus during the protest and taking part in the vandalism. A few days later, Soumyadip Mahata, a student of philosophy at JU was also arrested.
Following the direction of the High Court, an FIR was also registered against the education minister and his driver based on a complaint by Indranuj Roy, who was injured on that day. According to reports, the arrested students were later released on bail. But nothing is none regarding investigation in the FIR against the minister.
Nothing was heard about the incident after that until last Friday, when Hindol Mazumdar was detained after landing at Delhi airport from Spain and arrested by Kolkata Police. After ten long hours of questioning, his phone and laptop were allegedly seized forcefully. He was accused of being a part of the conspiracy to attack the minister on March 1. The Police allege that Hindol, along with two others from abroad, funded those involved in the attack on the minister on March 1, citing “incriminating WhatsApp chats and social media posts”.
The charges pressed against Hindol include causing hurt or grievous hurt by dangerous means, mischief, criminal conspiracy, damage to public property, subversive acts and disrespect to the national flag among others.
The manner of his arrest based on a fictional narrative woven by the police, the witch-hunt and harassment through look-out notice has outraged the student and human right organizations, social activists and even the teachers of the Jadavpur University.
Jadavpur University Teachers Association (JUTA) deplored the arrest of Hindol describing it as “an act of vendetta.” General Secretary of JUTA Partha Pratim Roy said the arrest brought to the fore the “autocratic, vengeful character of the state government which wants to turn Bengal into a police state.” JUTA demanded immediate release of Hindol and dropping of all false charges against him.
The Association for Protection of Democratic Right (APDR) has strongly condemned the harassment and arrest of Hindol Majumdar by issuing a lookout notice and demands his unconditional release. APDR said that Kolkata Police has surpassed even Amit Shah’s police in taking revenge. A statement issued by APDR said “It is unbelievable that a lookout notice is issued for a former student leader, just like the one issued for hardened criminals or dreaded terrorists.” The human right group called Hindol’s arrest as an expression of extreme state vengeance and a dire state warning to all protestors.
Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners – WB while condemning the arrest of Hindol Majumdar criticised the police for taking Hindol to court with his face covered like a notorious criminal. CRPP-WB pointed out that the Third and Fourth Geneva Conventions declare covering of the accused’s face to be completely illegal and consider it a form of torture. It said that despite our country being a signatory to the Geneva Convention, accused persons are often brought before the public with their faces completely covered in this way.
The statement released by CRPP made an appeal – “Let us speak out against the state conspiracy to frame an accused as a tainted criminal even before the charges against him are proved.” At the same time, CRPP-WB demanded unconditional release of Hindol Majumdar and immediate withdrawal of fabricated charges against him by the police.
Srijan Bhattacharya, All India Secretary, Student Federation of India (SFI) told Groundxero that it is clear that the police are being used to create a reign of fear and terror in West Bengal. They want to scare students who protest and convey to them the message that even if you are in Spain we can implicate you here in fabricated charges. The entire thing is a political vendetta, part of a policy to malign JU and the students.
Progressive Democratic Student Federation (PDSF), a left student organization called Hindol’s arrest a continuation of the terrible undemocratic practices that the WB government continues to perpetuate. “Whether it’s the murder of Abhaya [RG Kar Hospital incident], the attack on the teachers’ protest, or the arrest of Hindol; in all cases, the police act as loyal servants of the state government,” said PDSF in a statement.
The student organization said “comparison of Hindol to a ‘terrorist’ clearly indicates a saffronisation of the police and the administration in WB.” PDSF stressed on the need to build a larger struggle for the release of Hindol and other political prisoners languishing in jails.
AISA – Jadavpur University Unit said that this incident is yet another example of how, in recent years, the state has been systematically suppressing voices of dissent and punishing those who dare to question injustice. Hindol’s arrest is an attack not only on an individual but on the democratic right to protest and resist, it added.
Shamin Ahmed, an advocate at Kolkata High Court, called Hindol’s arrest a chilling attack on fundamental right to protest. He said that it is a violation of the SC directive which has time and again said that unless arrest is a must, don’t arrest. Shamim added that in this particular case, the student was not directly involved in the incident, he was not even absconding. “There was no need to arrest him. It is an absolute violation of his human right, and the police are being used as a tool of oppression,” said Shamim.
Sanjib Acharya, a Prof in Engineering Faculty at JU told Groundxero that though the incidents that happened on March 1 were unwarranted, the state government is using them to target the university as an institution.
He said, “JU has a long tradition of student movements, although we don’t always agree with their form of agitation and support them. He added that the students are by nature emotional and they at times erupt in such protests to press for their demands.” “But the kind of political vendetta being shown by this government towards a student activist, I have not seen such a thing in 25 years of my teaching life in this university. It will scare away the students, who wish to join student politics in future,” added Prof. Acharya.
But why such political vendetta by the state government against a student activist; is it the person Hindol who is being targeted or the real target is the institution – Jadavpur University?
Prof Acharya, while strongly condemning the arrest of Hindol and the lookout notice issued to implicate him, said, “I have a hunch, an apprehension you can say, a planned and organized conspiracy is going on to privatise the whole education system. Jadavpur stands as an obstacle to this process. Here the students get quality education so cheap, and they are extremely successful as professionals when they pass out from this public university. JU is a bad example before the private sector. So they want to destroy this bad example. Even the minimum funds needed to run the university are not granted, numerous administrative posts are lying vacant. The policy is to destroy this public university, and so it is always being targeted. Even the students are victimized.”
Is Mamata copying the playbook of Amit Shah of criminalizing protestors and trying to make Umar Khalid out of Hindol? The answers are not yet clear. But the signs are indeed alarming.