The police in Burdwan district of West Bengal on Friday arrested 10 persons in connection with the alleged assault on a student accused of heckling Union minister Babul Supriyo at the Jadavpur University campus on September 19, PTI reported. The student, Debanjan Ballav, alleged in his complaint that Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad workers dragged him and his girlfriend out of a bus on October 2 and assaulted them.

East Midnapore Superintendent of Police Bhaskar Mukherjee said an investigation was going on but refused to clarify whether those arrested were members of the ABVP. The ABVP, on the other hand, described Ballav’s charges as “baseless”.

Days after he was allegedly heckled, Supriyo had shared pictures of the students who attacked him and said it remained to be seen what action West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee would take against them. One of the pictures had Ballav in it.

Supriyo, in response to a plea by Ballav’s mother, said he would not harm her son. The woman, according to a clipping of a Bengali newspaper tweeted by the Bharatiya Janata Party leader, is suffering from cancer. “Please don’t worry, aunty,” Supriyo tweeted. “I will not harm your son in any way. I just want him to learn from his mistakes. I have not lodged any police complaint against anybody, nor did I allow anyone to do so. Stop worrying and get well soon.”

Ballav, however, had refused to apologise to Supriyo, claiming he attacked the minister in self-defence.

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