West Bengal Education Minister Bratya Basu.
| Photo Credit: DEBASISH BHADURI
A court in Kolkata remanded a researcher accused of plotting an attack on West Bengal Education Minister Bratya Basu’s car to police custody till August 18 on Friday (August 15, 2025).
Hindol Majumdar, the researcher, was taken into custody after he landed in Delhi from Spain on Thursday. His parents, both retired academicians of Jadavapur University, have expressed surprise over the arrest of their son, who is on a scholarship to Spain.
On Friday, when the researcher was produced before Alipore Court, the government pleader said that even though Hindol Majumdar, an alumnus of Jadavapur University was away in Spain, he was the prime conspirator in the attack on the Minister’s car in March 2025. The counsel compared the situation to the attack on the American Center in Kolkata in January 2022, where the mastermind Aftab Ansari planned the attack while in Dubai.
Students blocked car
On March 1, 2025, students of Jadavpur University surrounded State’s Education Minister Bratya Basu’s vehicle inside the University. The Minister’s car ran over a student who suffered an eye injury. According to Kolkata Police, they have accessed conversations between Hindol and students who had surrounded and attacked the Minister’s car. According to police, there was a look out notice against the researcher, and he was arrested after he arrived in Delhi.
“No summons came to our house. I don’t understand why there was a lookout notice. The complaint is ridiculous. Jadavpur University students are not so immature that someone from abroad can instigate them,” the father of the researcher said.
While several students of the university, including academicians, have put their weight behind Hindol Majumdar, the Trinamool Congress said that being meritorious does not get anyone preferential treatment before the law. Trinamool leader Kunal Ghosh compared the researcher with Osama Bin Laden and said that he had planned the attacks on 9/11 without being in the United States of America.
Published – August 15, 2025 10:49 pm IST
