Kerala on Thursday observed a State-wide shutdown to protest against the attack on Mahija, mother of engineering student Jishnu Pranoy who was found dead under mysterious circumstances in his college hostel three months back, by the police during a sit-in she staged at Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday along with family members, relatives and friends demanding justice to her son.
Though voices of protests over the incident came up even from within own party and the lDF, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who also holds the Home portfolio, tried to justify the police while a preliminary report prepared by an Inspector General of Police Manoj Abraham reportedly pointed out that the police should have shown more care while handling the situation.
A high-level police meeting at Thiruvananthapuram decided to constitute a special team to look into the mysterious death of Jishnu. The Additional DGP, Crime Branch would supervise the probe. An understanding was reached at the meeting, presided over by DGP loknath Behera, that all the culprits should be caught within two weeks.
The shutdown, called by the Congress-led Opposition UDF and BJP, evoked total response and was by and large peaceful. The day was marked by shows of solidarity with Jishnu’s grieving family in the form of demonstrations even as Mahija and her family said they would continue their struggle till those responsible for Jishnu’s death were put behind bars.
Jishnu Pranoy (18), a first-year-BTech student of the self-financing Nehru College of Engineering at Pampady, Thrissur, a unit of Nehru Group of educational institutions, was found dead in his hostel on January 6. The police had termed it as a case of suicide but his relatives hold that he was murdered by the college authorities.
The police had registered a case by naming six persons belonging to the college management and staff, as accused. However, no substantial action had been taken except the arrests of Nehru group chairman P Krishnadas and the college’s public relations officer Sanjith Viswanathan, who were released on bail immediately on Tuesday and Wednesday respectively.
“Our struggle is not against the Government but it is against the police,” said Mahija, a former activist of CPI(M) student outfit SFI, at the Government Medical College Hospital, Thiruvananthapuram where she was admitted after Wednesday’s police action. “The struggle will continue till we get justice,” she said.
Throughout Thursday morning, the gates of the Secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram, the nerve-centre of State administration, witnessed tides of protest against the police attack against Mahija as various organisations like the constituent parties of the UDF, BJP, Youth Congress, KSU, SDPI, etc held marches and the police struggled to cope with the situation.
Public vehicles including buses, taxis and trucks kept off the roads across the State while educational institutions, trade and commercial establishments remained closed. Attendance was skeletal at Government offices. “Indeed, the hartal is causing a lot of inconvenience but it is necessary to protest against yesterday’s police action,” said Abdul Rahman, a trader in Thrissur.
The police had dragged Mahija through the road, allegedly kicked her and forcibly carried her off to their vehicle when she, her family and relatives staged a sit-in at the DGP office’s gates demanding justice to Jishnu. The police had also attacked KK Sreejith, Mahija’s brother.
Both were admitted to the Medical College Hospital with injuries.
Blasting the Home Department for Wednesday’s incident, State CPI secretary Kanam Rajendran said it could have been avoided if he police had applied a little common sense and if DGP loknath Behera showed a little intelligence. CPI(M)’s Politbureau member MA Baby also came down heavily on the police for the attack on Mahija.
Fourteen people, including Mahija, her husband Asokan, Sreejith and their friends and relatives, began a hunger strike in Thiruvananthapuram demanding justice while Jishnu’s sister Avishna said she would go on a protest fast at their house in Valayam, Kozhikode till her parents and others returned from the State capital.
At a campaign rally of the lDF in Chelary, Malappuram where a lok Sabha by-election is to take place on April 12, Chief Minister Pinarayi claimed that the police had not attacked Mahija. “The Government has done everything possible for Jishnu’s family. All of us can understand the grief of a mother who has lost her son,” he said.
Meanwhile, a court in Thiruvananthapuram rejected the bail pleas of four social workers including KM Shajahan, former aide of Achuthanandan who was later expelled from the CPI(M), who were arrested on Wednesday from site of the protest by Jishnu’s family. The police had also arrested a self-styled Swami from the protest site. His bail plea has also been rejected.