The state human rights commission will officially begin its probe into the violence and vandalism at the Presidency University (PU) on Thursday. This was announced by Amal Mukhopadhyay, the head of the special team constituted by the state human rights commission. Prof Mukhpopadhyay is the former principal of the erstwhile Presidency College. The team on Tuesday visited the university campus, inspected several places including the famous Baker Laboratory, spoke to vice-chancellor Malabika Sarkar, registrar Prabir Dasgupta and the students.
“It was an informal visit to the varsity today. We spoke to the vice-chancellor and the registrar about the incident. We will start the inquiry on April 18,” said Prof Mukhopadhya.
“I was formally asked to probe into what has happened at the university on April 10. The probe will be conducted in-camera. We have been given two weeks by the commission, but we will submit the report before that,” he said, refusing to make any further comment. The team took photographs of the areas affected during the attack.
The former principal informed that the varsity authorities have been asked to submit the list of witnesses of the incident who would be questioned. When asked about inquiring the police who allegedly did not take any action during the incident and the alleged outsiders linked with the attack, Prof Mukhopadhyay replied, “ If the varsity authorities officially complain against the police, then we would question the police. In case of the outsiders only after the inquiry we would be able to tell whether they would be interrogated or not.”
When further asked about police putting varsity security guard Pappu Singh under scanner, he added,” If Pappu Singh is among the witnesses then he would be questioned.” PU was wracked by violence on April 10.