Governor to address concerns of ragging victim’s parents

TRIVANDRUM: Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan has assured the parents of the student who died ater torture on a university campus that he would ensure a free and fair investigation.

JS Sidharthan, 20, a veterinary science and animal husbandry undergraduate student, was found hanging from the ventilator of the university hotel’s toilet on Feb.18.

Though the police initially concluded it as a case of suicide, his family questioned this, citing circumstances suggesting murder.

The police arrested 20 students, including leaders of the Students Federation of India (SFI) at the Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, at Khan’s instance.

The governor also sought the services of a High Court judge to head a judicial inquiry into the death and criminalisation of campuses by student and staff unions.

His father, Jayaprkash, a supervisor at a construction company in Gulf, had petitioned the governor seeking a probe into the role of the SFI, the student wing of the ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist). He later met Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, expressed the family’s mistrust of the police, and demanded a federal agency to investigate the death.

On March 9, Vijayan ordered the handing over of the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation, following which the opposition Congress ended their six-day hunger strike.

However, the local police have not sent the proforma report to the federal agency so far, raising doubts over the Let Democratic Front (LDF) government’s sincerity.

“The family has expressed their concerns, and I have assured them that absolute fairness will be observed and justice will be done,” the governor, the chancellor of the state’s universities, told reporters on Tuesday.

“I can only assure them that nobody will be allowed to interfere in the inquiry proceedings. We have already constituted a judicial and CBI inquiry, which has been gazeted.”

Thegovernor’sreactioncameaterjayaprakash threatened to stage an indefinite sit-in before Cliff House, the chief minister’s official residence.

“I doubt we are being cheated. The government atempted to silence us as elections were around the corner, and it would affect their electoral prospects,” Jayaprakash said.

“The chief minister wanted to end the protests by the people irrespective of their faith or political affiliations and the reports on the tardy police investigation in the media.”

The opposition parties also held protest marches on the Veterinary and Animal Sciences University campus at Pookode in Wayanad district almost every day.