The Kerala Police on Saturday took into custody JS Sharath, Thiruvananthapuram district vice-president of Marxist students’ union SFI, who had assaulted TP Sreenivasan, former diplomat and vice-chairman of the Kerala State Higher Education Council, on Friday at the venue of an education conference in Kovalam near State capital Thiruvananthapuram.

The Thiruvananthapuram City Shadow Police took Sharath, said to be an accused in several criminal cases, into custody from near the Government Ayurveda College where he was hiding after Friday’s incident. The police also intensified search for the others involved in the attack against Sreenivasan.

Sharath was taken to the Cantonment Police Station after he was taken into custody and police sources said he could be handed over to the Kovalam police later. Earlier in the day, the State committee of the SFI had removed Sharath from the positions he was holding in the outfit. He was also the area president of the union in Vilappil.

The organisational action against Sharath came after top leaders of the CPI(M) condemned the attack on Sreenivasan. Video footages had shown Sharath slapping the former diplomat on the face when he was standing with some policemen at the gate of a luxury hotel in Kovalam, venue of the education meet, after SFI protestors blocked his vehicle.

Opposition leader VS Achuthanandan said that efforts for getting policies changed should not be made by attacks on individuals. State CPI(M) secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said the incident had marred the entire protest staged by the SFI while Politbureau member Pinarayi Vijayan described the attack as excessive.

Scores of students belonging to the leftist students’ union had gathered in front of the venue of the conference at Kovalam alleging that the Global Education Meet was meant for further commercialization of Kerala’s higher education sector and for finding ways for bringing in foreign universities to the State.