Former Visva-Bharati VC Bidyut Chakrabarty Questioned by Police

On Monday, former Visva-Bharati vice-chancellor Bidyut Chakrabarty was questioned for three hours by a team of Santiniketan police led by officer-in-charge Kasturi Mukherjee (Chatterjee) over three criminal charges filed against him while he was a student.

According to a police officer, the Calcutta High Court's directive prompted the interrogation, which took place at the Visva-Bharati VC residence Purbita.

We questioned him for over three hours today (Monday) regarding three cases, including his contentious remarks regarding Durga Puja and Bengalis. According to a senior police officer, the second round of questioning in relation to charges involving the contentious plaques and his correspondence with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is scheduled for this Wednesday.

November 9, the day after Chakrabarty's five-year term as VC ended, the Santiniketan police gave him summonses to appear in court on November 10 in relation to five criminal cases.

Next, Chakrabarty sought the HC to issue a temporary stay on the summonses while requesting that police question the former VC on November 20 and 22. HC will rehearse the case on November 29.

The official bungalow has not been abandoned by Chakrabarty. In a news release on Monday, Visva-Bharati said that Chakrabarty had told him via his attorney that he must remain until November 30.

According to sources, the authorities from the education ministry and the university, who interim VC Sanjoy Kumar Mallik met with on November 16 in Delhi, did not want there to be any problem surrounding Chakrabarty's stay until November 30.

"The Ministry was notified upon inquiry that, on behalf of the former Vice-Chancellor, his legal counsel had sent an email on November 15, 2023, stating that he needed to remain at the Vice-Chancellor's house until November 30, 2023. According to policy, the institution is looking into this notification. According to the university press release, the Vice-Chancellor (Acting) has been counseled to make sure the outgoing Vice-Chancellor leaves with dignity and grace.

On Tuesday, a few Visva-Bharati students are planning to demonstrate in support of Chakrabarty's removal from the official residence.

The ministry has asked interim VC Mallik to move quickly to nominate the next VC, acting public relations officer Mahua Banerjee stated in a statement.

Directive Plaque

According to Visva-Bharati, the education ministry has recommended acting VC Sanjoy Kumar Mallik to erect plaques with wording from it commemorating Unesco's designation of Santiniketan as a World Heritage Site. Mallik has been instructed by the ministry to finish the assignment right away.

"It has also been directed to the vice-chancellor (acting) that the official text of the statement endorsing Santiniketan as a World Heritage site should be installed as soon as possible. Following receipt of the aforementioned draft statement, the ministry was notified that a committee has been promptly created to finalize the Bengali version of the text (as directed) and review the text in Hindi and English to ensure consistency of statement across the three languages. The institution promised the ministry that it would not unnecessarily postpone completing the work on this matter either, according to a news release from the university.