Admission row: Student arrested in Hooghly

Kolkata: A college student was arrested on Thursday on charges of demanding money from another who sought admission to Haripal Vivekananda Mahavidyalaya in Hooghly. The accused, a resident of Ghanashyampur in Singur, had demanded Rs 10,000 from a girl assuring her of admission at the institution. The complainant is a resident of Dewanbari village in Singur.

The student, Apurba Das, has been arrested and it is learnt that he had visited the student's residence on more than one occasion with a demand for money.

After the complaint was lodged, the police set up a trap and told the girl to call up Das at her residence. Following their instructions, she asked him to come to her house and when he reached there on Thursday morning, he was caught red-handed. A few days back, the cops had arrested two students of Peary Mohan College in Uttarpara on similar charges.

Recently, amid allegations of extortion of money from students in the name of admissions in colleges, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee paid a surprise visit to Asutosh College and warned of "strong action" against anyone indulging in irregularities during the admission process.

The Student Federation of India (SFI) and the student wing of the BJP took out separate rallies in the city to protest against alleged extortion in colleges.