India / Kolkata university Dean, locked in campus for 6 days, escapes as students sleep

KOLKATA: Presidency University Dean of Students Arun Maity left the campus on early Wednesday morning after being gheraoed by a section of students for over six consecutive days.

A varsity official said Maity, who was gheraoed since 3.30 pm on February 13, left the campus around 3 am on Wednesday while the 30 agitating students were sleeping on the corridor.

He boarded his car parked in the portico and left, the official said.

Doctors inspected Maity and declared him fit but he is stressed due to the gherao, he said.

The dean did not take calls despite repeated attempts.

The agitating students said they will continue the sit-in outside the dean's office till they get a concrete assurance that the issues will be addressed on an urgent basis.

Students had gheraoed him demanding immediate handing over of the three under-renovation wards of Hindu Hostel and proper sanitation facilities for girls' hostel in Salt Lake, one of the agitating students, Debnil Paul said.

The dean of students was only prevented from leaving the campus during the period but he was not harassed and was free to go outside the chamber whenever he wanted, he said.

"We had urged him to stay with us and understand our situation at hostel," Paul said.

Another agitating student, Subho Biswas, said, "Dean sir had refused to acknowledge our problems and always maintained that only the vice-chancellor is the competent authority to give concrete assurances on the issues, which made us think he is not serious in solving them."

The students had on February 3 and 4 gheraoed Lohia due to which she fell ill and was hospitalised.

The VC, who was later discharged from hospital, has not come to the campus since then.

The superintendent and assistant superintendent of the two hostels had offered to step down citing an inability to work in the wake of protests but their resignations have not been accepted yet, a Presidency official said.