Two young men have been accused of offering engineering seats at Jadavpur University to aspirants in exchange for money when spot counselling for JEE was on. The duo was allegedly seen offering seats to aspirants and their parents on campus on December 22 in exchange for cash. Current students took note of the incident and reported it to the authorities who in turn alerted the local police. The incident has now turned into a political issue with the left-leaning student groups associating the perpetrators with the Trinamool Chhatra Parishad, TMC's student wing. But the TMCP categorically denied any affiliation.
Suraj Mukherjee, a 26-year-old man from Howrah and Souvik Mandal, 25, from Hooghly were arrested by the Jadavpur Police based on a complaint by Dr Samantak Das, Pro-Vice-Chancellor. According to the complaint, the duo was seen offering seats for cash on campus when the students alerted the authorities.
The students who went to enquire when it seemed fishy, were also assured seats. "We had just gone to see what's going on. They thought we are aspirants and told us that if we really want to study here but chances seem bleak then they can set up a meeting with a teacher and get things sorted," said one of the students. The SFI, in a statement also said that a professor from the Philosophy Department was also present. "The perpetrators came in a car which had the sticker of Hooghly District Trinamool Congress on it. These two were caught red-handed and taken to the Pro-VC's office where the TMC student groups tried to advocate for the duo," the statement added.
The TMCP on the other hand said that this is just an attempt to malign their name and even though they came in a car with a TMC sticker on it, they are in no way related to Mamata Banerjee's party. "What is highly concerning is that these individuals came in vehicle number WB12BE5440 with a sticker of our organisation affixed to it. We would like to state that these individuals are in no way related to any of our organisations and this is only an attempt to malign and tarnish our image. We would therefore request you to kindly investigate this, which would help us identify which organisation they belong to," said the TMCP.
