Burdwan, June 25: A group of students from Presidency College and Jadavpur University were thrashed and held in a Burdwan village tonight on the charge of inciting people whose land is being acquired for a power plant.

However, villagers said confusion whether they were Maoists led to the assault. Police said the five could be Naxalite sympathisers but they had not found any proof to suggest that they were Maoists.

The five detained have been linked to the United Students’ Democratic Front, said to be a pro-Naxalite outfit.

Before the police picked them up at Katwa village, a CPM stronghold 170 km from Calcutta, the five were beaten up by villagers.

“We have detained the youths after being told by villagers that they were trying to incite them. Some locals also beat them up, suspecting them to be Maoists. We are interrogating them to find out if they are indeed Maoists and the purpose of their visit,” said Harun-al Rashid, the sub-divisional police officer of Katwa.

The group had arrived at the village after getting off at Katwa station around 7.15pm.

Those detained have been identified as Lokeswari Dasgupta, a Ballygunge resident and a second-year history student from Jadavpur University. The others include Priyankar De, a Dum Dum resident, and Supriyo Sur from Baguiati. Priyankar is a second-year history student of Presidency College. Supriyo is in the final year.

Another held is Jalandhar Mahato, a Sonarpur resident and a member of the students’ front. Police said he was once arrested in West Midnapore’s Gowaltor a few years ago for suspected links with Naxalites.

Asim Debnath, from Nabadwip, is a member of the Association for Protection of Democratic Rights. He was admitted to Katwa sub-divisional hospital after the beating.

“Lokeswari said she came to investigate if the villagers were getting a fair price for the land being acquired for the power plant,” said Samir Basak, the Katwa circle inspector.

Malati Saha, an elderly villager, said the villagers had mistaken them to be rebels. “We panicked when we saw the youths talking to villagers about the land price. A rumour spread that they were Maoists,” she said.