Scuffle between student groups disrupts Presidency University fest, singer forced to exit midway

KOLKATA: A scuffle between two groups of student bodies — Students' Federation of India (SFI) and Independents' Consolidation (IC) — disrupted the performance of Abhijit Barman (Pata) and his band during the Presidency University fest on Friday.
Complaints of harassment and physical assaults were lodged by both groups at the local police station. The university authorities said no written complaint was received.
An undergraduate second-year female student of maths dept was allegedly physically assaulted and harassed by a former student, Ahan Karmakar, during the fest on Friday night. However, Karmakar denied the allegations and told TOI that a complaint was lodged with Jorasanko PS on Friday night. A complaint against him was also lodged on Saturday evening at the same police station.
The fest — ICON, organised by IC — started on Feb 6 and Friday was the last day when International Mother Language Day was observed. However, singer Pata and his band had to leave the show midway due to this incident. The singer posted on social media, "Some unfortunate incidents prevented the ‘Presidency College' ICON event from being completed. We are sorry... We had to leave the stage without performing for the many loving people standing in front of us..."
Atri Deb Chudhury, one of the organisers, said, "During ICON's final event, intoxicated SFI students disrupted Barman's performance by storming the stage and grabbing his microphone. This tarnished Presidency's reputation."
Manjistha Basu, a third-year UG student, wrote a post on social media alleging that Karmakar, an ex-student and a member of IC, "harassed" and "physically assaulted" a second-year student of maths dept. Ahan claimed he was physically assaulted by SFI supporters. SFI denied charges against their supporters and issued a statement on Saturday that indicated a ‘failure of the organisers'.