Kottayam, Kerala Governor P. Sathasivam on Thursday expressed his displeasure over the way things have unfolded at the famed University College in Thiruvananthapuram last week when a student was stabbed to death by SFI members.
Speaking at a private engineering college near here, Sathasivam, a former Chief Justice in the Supreme Court, said: “What happened at the college is disturbing. Leader of opposition Ramesh Chennithala and state Education Minister C. Raveendranath have met me to discuss the matter. I expect that very soon all the issues will be settled. The Vice Chancellors of various colleges will now have to submit a monthly report on what’s happening in their institutes.”
Last week, eight members of the Student Federation of India (SFI) — the student wing of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) — allegedly stabbed a B.A. final year student Akhil to death and injured two others of the Thiruvananthapuram University College.
The police have so far arrested five of the accused while three are still on the run. Both the prime accused in the case — Shivaranjith and Nazeem — are office bearers of the SFI unit in the college. They have secured first and 28th rank in the Public Service Commission (PSC) of the 4th battalion of officers of the Kerala Armed Police (Kasaragod) list.
The PSC has launched an internal probe on the allegations.
Another intriguing development in the case is the recovery of blank answer booklets of University of Kerala from the office of the SFI unit in the University College besides recovering fake seals of the physical education department from the house of Shivaranjith.
On Thursday, the University officials confirmed that these answersheets were original.
The Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) on Thursday staged a sit-in protest in front of the state Secretariat in which all their legislators took part. They are demanding a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the matter.
Later, Chennithala told the media that things have reached a point of no return and both the PSC Chairman and the Vice Chancellor of the University of Kerala should resign.
The principal of the University College was removed and replaced by a new one. The college, which was closed after the incident, is set to re-open on Monday.
