Arrest of ex-Jadhavpur uni activist Hindol Majumdar a witch hunt: CASR

Hyderabad: The Campaign Against State Repression (CASR) demanded the immediate release of Hindol Majumdar, a former student activist of Jadhavpur University, who was detained in Delhi Airport on August 13, for his alleged involvement in an attack on the convoy of West Bengal education minister Bratya Basu in March 2025.

CASR condemned the arrest which it said is part of a wider crackdown on all democratic and dissenting voices. The organisation said that the crackdown has intensified ever since the introduction of Surajkund Scheme in 2022, which claims to wipe off “naxalism of pen and gun”.

In a statement to the media on Friday, August 15, the collective of around 40 student and civil society organisations urged all sections of the society to stand against what they claimed is a witch-hunt of students, professors, activists and the democratic voices.

On August 13, 2025, Hindol Majumdar, a former student of pharmaceutical technology at Jadhavpur University who had been pursuing his PhD at University of Granada in Spain for the past two years, was detained at Delhi Airport upon his arrival at 10.30 am.

A lookout circular had been issued earlier against Hindol, who had been associated with Democratic Youth-Students’ Association, an organisation based in Bengal. His parents (both retired professors from JU) were summoned by the Delhi Police to Indira Gandhi International Airport Police Station later in the evening, and were informed that he would be handed over to Kolkata Police.

“After ten long hours of harassment and detention, his phone and laptop were seized forcefully and he was arrested by Kolkata Police based on the same allegation,” the statement read.

Charges against Hindol

Hindol was booked under under sections 126(2), 118(1), 54, 324(2), and 61(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), read with sections 3 and 5 of the Prevention of Damage to Public Property (PDDP) Act of 1984, section 9 of the West bengal Maintenance of Public Order (WBMPO ) Act, and the Flag Code of India 2002.

The charges include wrongful restraint, causing hurt or grievous hurt by dangerous means, mischief, criminal conspiracy, damage to public property, subversive acts and disrespect to the national flag. “This case is completely false and based on fictional narrative woven by the police forces,” CASR alleged.

CASR’s version of the attack on Bengal education minister

The collective claims that the ‘attack’ on Bratya Basu’s convoy was actually a joint protest organised by the students and various democratic and progressive student organisations of Jadhavpur University, to present their demands to the education minister who had come there for a meeting of the West Bengal College and University Professors’ Association (WBCUPA), a body associated with TMC.

“When the students peacefully attempted to communicate with Basu over union elections which had been withheld for the past five years, they were attacked by over a thousand TMC backed goons. “As the students gathered in front of his vehicle, instead of engaging with them, the minister tried to flee, driving his vehicle over the students who came in his way,” the statement read.

“One student from Revolutionary Students Front (RSF) was run over by his car, causing a head injury and bleeding so severe, that he had to be admitted in the ICU. Another Democratic Youth-Students’ Association (DYSA) activist sustained serious injuries in his neck and leg. Many other students were also injured and at least ten others had to go to hospital,” CASR further alleged, questioning the police inaction against the minister’s act, which was similar to the 2021 incident of a minister’s son running his car over protesting farmers in Lakhimpur Kheri of Uttar Pradesh.

The collective notes that Hindol was not even in the country at the time of the incident, clarifying that he had been doing his research in Spain since November 2023. CAGR alleges that since there was no other basis to arrest him, the state has cooked up a story of him “funding the ones involved in the incident”.

A pattern in the arrests

The collective claimed that students, professors, intellectuals, journalists, lawyers, workers unions, peasant organisations, artists, poets etc were being targeted on similar lines. CAGR pointed out that In February this year, 14 students from Jamia Millia Islamia University were illegally detained after a protest against state repression.

In May, Ali Khan Muhammad, an associate professor at Ashoka University was arrested for a post on social media condemning Operation Sindoor.

“July 2025 saw a series of illegal abduction, enforced disappearance and brutal third degree torture of seven students and activists from Delhi by Delhi Police Special Cell. In the beginning of this month, the Jammu & Kashmir Home Department had banned 25 books on Kashmir. “The NIA, while cooking up the Lucknow Conspiracy Case (another false conspiracy case of the BK16-type) has mentioned multiple times in it’s press releases it’s plans to clamp down on student groups and organisations in this case,” CAGR pointed out.

Organisations part of CAGR

AIRSO, AISA, AISF, APCR, ASA, BASF, BSM, Bhim Army, bsCEM, CEM, COLLECTIVE, CRPP, CSM, CTF, DISSC, DSU, DTF, Forum Against Repression Telangana, Fraternity, IAPL, Innocence Network, Karnataka Janashakti, LAA, Mazdoor Adhikar Sangathan, Mazdoor Patrika, NAPM, Nazariya Magazine , Nishant Natya Manch, Nowruz, NTUI, People’s Watch, Rihai Manch, Samajwadi Janparishad, Samajwadi Lok Manch, Bahujan Samjavadi Manch, SFI, United Peace Alliance, WSS, and Y4S.