KMC, Police Personnel Enter Jadavpur University At Night To Erase Graffiti, Claim Students

Kolkata: Students of Jadavpur University on Wednesday claimed that police and Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) personnel jointly entered the campus in plain clothes after midnight and erased the wall graffiti again.

They questioned how the personnel managed to gain access to the campus without the authorities' permission. "Late at night, some students were walking along the road outside the campus when we noticed numerous police vehicles parked in front. We saw some people entering the campus in plainclothes, though they were wearing ID cards," Sheikh Nawab, a student, said.

A fresh coat of paint on a graffiti at Jadavpur University. (ETV Bharat)

According to Nawab, from the ID cards, the students realised that they were officials of the Kolkata Police and KMC. "We received the information later. When we went to the campus on Wednesday morning, we saw that white paint had been applied over slogans. How did police officials enter the campus without the vice-Chancellor's permission? Are we to assume that the VC had authorised the entry?" he asked.

Another student, Arghyajit Banerjee, said students from the hostel had gone out to buy food at night and noticed a large police presence and a crowd outside Gate 4. "When they learned that officials from KMC and Kolkata Police had arrived to scrub off the graffiti, they immediately informed us," he added.

"We learned that the slogans written on the walls outside the open-air theatre and the Triguna Sen auditorium, as well as behind Nazrul Bhavan outside the Sociology Department, had been erased. Today, we intend to ask the vice-chancellor how the police managed to enter the campus at night. Police access to the campus is usually restricted to day hours. So, how did they arrive in the dead of night? Were the authorities aware of this?" he asked.

A fresh coat of paint on a graffiti at Jadavpur University. (ETV Bharat)

However, vice-chancellor Chiranjib Bhattacharya maintained that the police did not enter the campus at night. "I did not order anyone to erase the graffiti. We had cleaned the walls on Saturday. But the graffiti reappeared. Honestly, we lack the infrastructure to keep cleaning it repeatedly. That is why the Kolkata Municipal Corporation handled it this time," he said.

"The government instructed us to carry out this task. But we had informed KMC that we were unable to do it repeatedly. Consequently, the Corporation took over the responsibility. According to the information I have, the police were not supposed to enter the campus, and they did not enter," he added.

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