The credibility of graduates and post graduates passing out of Kerala University has come under a shadow following the seizure of bundles of unused answer papers and the official seal of the head of the department from the office of the CPI-M led Students Federation of India at Thiruvananthapuram and the residences of some of the SFI leaders.
The Confederation of University Teachers Organisation in Kerala has demanded that an independent agency should probe the circumstances that led to University answer sheets and office seals of the authorities reaching the houses of student leaders and party offices.
The Kerala Police probing the last week’s stabbing incident at the University College in the heart of Thiruvananthapuram was shocked when they saw bundles of examination papers and the office seal stored in a room in the college which was being used by the SFI as its office.
Empty bottle of imported scotch was one of the items seized from the office room of the SFI. A probe is on to find out whether the bottle was dumped into the room by forces which are opposed to the SFI, said a police officer in the investigating team.
The University College is a fortress under the full control of the SFI irrespective of the party in power at the neighbouring Kerala Secretariat.
Once known for academic excellence, the University College has become a den of anti-social activities.
“This college is used by the CPI-M to recruit youngsters to be deployed in the institution to annihilate students belonging to other unions and political parties,” said a teacher in the college who did not want his name to be quoted.
It was a group rivalry between the SFI activists which led to the stabbing incident resulting in Akhil, himself a SFI leader hot stab wounds.
The College was in the news recently when a second year degree student tried to commit suicide in the college itself because of harassment by the SFI leaders. She was saved in the nick of time and the college authorities acceded to her request for a transfer to another college. “During the last one year 150 students have left the college complaining of harassment and abuse by SFI leaders,” said this girl from her residence at a Thiruvananthapuram suburb.
The investigators probing the case seized bundles of unused university answer sheets from the residence of Shivaranjit, the prime accused in the stabbing case. Shivaranjit has been selected to the Kerala Police as civil police officer by the Kerala Public Service Commission which is fully under the CPI-M control. How he got into the rank list of the KPSC is also being investigated by the police. Shivaranjit and Nazeem the second accused have been arrested and remanded to judicial custody. Following widespread resentment among the student community, the State leadership of the SFI has disbanded the wing’s college unit.