Kolkata: Swarnabha Banerjee was just trying to leave for home in Dum Dum, around 24 kilometres from Panchasayar, on the evening of September 27, when things got “really bad” at the main gate of Kolkata’s Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute.“At around 7 pm on Sunday, when outsiders whom we identified as goons from the Bharatiya Janata Party began gathering from all sides, it seemed that the main gate might give way under the pressure. I felt, then, that the best thing for me would be to leave for home,” he said.The moment he stepped outside, he said, he was attacked.“A group virtually pounced on me. A young man with his hair tied in a ponytail was leading the attack. They verbally abused me as they rained blows on me. Of course, they didn’t say what crime I or the students of the institute had committed. Gradually, the number of attackers increased. I was beaten so badly that my clothes were torn and I started bleeding,” Banerjee said.In desperation, he managed to board the first bus he could flag down, but he said that the violence did not stop there.“I saw a bus heading towards Garia and got on it, but even that did not save me. The bus stopped at a traffic signal, and the BJP leader with the ponytail, accompanied by four or five others, got onto the bus, beat me and dragged me off. The other passengers could not understand what was happening,” Banerjee said.Left bruised and bleeding, Banerjee was eventually able to free himself. He has since received treatment at a government hospital and filed an attempt to murder complaint at the Survey Park police station.“I cannot imagine why an ordinary student of SRFTI could become such a target of the BJP. I am a local student in my batch, so instead of staying in the hostel I commute from home. I am quite unwell and my family is frightened,” he said.A photograph clicked by SRFTI teacher and filmmaker Pradipta Bhattacharyya, on September 27, showing the words ‘RSS’ written purportedly in blood at the SRFTI campus.As The Wire has reported, students at Kolkata’s prestigious SRFTI were on September 27 subjected to a brutal attack by workers claiming to be affiliated to the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. Eight students were seriously injured in the attack, and a librarian and several teachers who tried to intervene were also left bleeding. Over 150 students sustained injuries of varying degrees, say students. The attack came in response to students initially opposing a meeting by an RSS-affiliated body at the campus.By Monday morning, anger and fear had taken over the institute as students rallied in protest. If a local student going home from the campus is not safe, what about hostel residents, many asked.Out of the 720 students currently enrolled at SRFTI, about 500 live in hostels, while around 200 stay in nearby rented homes. The threat of Hindutva goons turning up at their doors is immediate for many.A woman student requesting anonymity said that she was being followed. “A few of us women students live in the Mukundapur area. Today [September 27], some men on motorcycles wearing saffron scarves around their necks followed us. They said that we were Bangladeshi citizens and that after beating us they would send us to Pakistan. They said West Bengal was now under their control,” she said.Students at the SRFTI campus, a day after the attack, on September 27. Photo: By arrangement.While most injured students were discharged after receiving care, students said that one of them was told by doctors that a student’s injuries are serious enough to require plastic surgery.The tension on campus had been building for months over administrative decisions. Shubham Waidanade, vice-president of the students’ union, explained the root of the frustration. “Sunday is a working day for us, but every Sunday our work is disrupted because some RSS-affiliated organisation or NGO holds a meeting in the main auditorium. We have come here to study and work. Why should we have to face situations like this? For the past several months, students have not been able to use the premises on even a single Sunday,” Waidanade said. Despite the severe escalation, newly appointed director Santosh Ajmera and the institute’s registrar have maintained total silence, refusing to answer questions from either students or reporters.West Bengal BJP spokesperson Debjit Sarkar presented a completely different version of events, denying any connection to the organizers. He said, “Akhil Bharatiya Grahak Panchayat is a non-political organisation. It works on consumer protection. We have no connection with it. On Sunday, the students carried out a planned attack and tore a picture of Bharat Mata. They questioned two Scheduled Caste persons about why they had come to attend the meeting. Then they questioned why the authorities had rented the hall to that organisation.”Students at the SRFTI campus, a day after the attack, on September 27. Photo: By arrangement.He went on to claim, “They had the audacity to carry out the attack in front of a person like Professor Pankaj Roy. Nine women were molested. Later, I heard that some of them were injured when a dispute broke out among themselves. We are collecting all photographs and evidence relating to the insult to the images of Bharat Mata and Swamiji. A police complaint has been lodged. The time for this kind of violence by the Left in West Bengal is over.”Students quickly pushed back against those statements. A student, Ritam Sarkar, questioned the political identity of the group. “Who other than the RSS uses the image of Bharat Mata in this way? They say they are neither BJP nor Sangh, but at the same time they shout ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’, while BJP goons enter the campus and beat students,” Sarkar said. Another student, Anushka Debnath, addressed the molestation allegations directly. “A group of women had been brought to the meeting in a bus. When the situation became tense, women students went to them, formed a protective chain around them and asked them to leave and get back onto their bus. But the women said they would not leave under any circumstances and would remain on the campus. The women students then continued to surround them. The allegation that any woman was disrespected is baseless,” she said.Students at the SRFTI campus, a day after the attack, on September 27. Photo: By arrangement.Another student from the 2022 batch, Rohan Sadafule, recounted how police handled the attack on the ground. “We had video footage of them beating us. When the police arrived and began escorting the outsiders away, we requested the officers to detain those who had assaulted us. We showed them the video of the attack and pointed out the people who had beaten the students.”What followed, according to Sadafule, was surreal. “Under pressure from the students, the police then called some of them back and made them sit down. In front of the police, the accused began calling people and asking more men to come to the gate. Some of them started smoking ganja. During this time, I was struck hard on the head and lost consciousness.”The Wire has attempted to reach the Panchasayar police station for comments, but was told that a “senior officer will be able to comment.”No police officers were stationed to protect the campus on Monday or Tuesday. Students said that threats kept circulating throughout the night, many warning the students that another group was coming to “pick them up”. Inside the locked gates, hundreds of students huddled together, guarded only by a few campus security personnel as BJP supporters marched nearby.Translated from the Bengali original by Aparna Bhattacharya.