The move comes in the wake of the tragic death of Siddharthan JS, a second-year student at KVASU, who was found hanging in the bathroom of the college hostel on 18 February.
Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University. (Wikimedia)
A team from the National Human Rights Commission of India (NHRC) will commence its five-day evidence collection drive at the Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (KVASU) in Wayanad, Kerala on Monday, 8 April.
The move comes in the wake of the tragic death of Siddharthan JS, a second-year student, who was found hanging in the bathroom of the college hostel on 18 February.
The NHRC team is expected to record the statements of students, teaching and non-teaching staff, members of the anti-ragging committee, and others.
Meanwhile, a CBI team, which has taken up the case, arrived in Wayanad on Saturday, 6 April. The four-member team met with the district police chief and Kalpetta DySP, who had probed the case.
The team, which has already started the probe, has summoned Siddharthan’s father T Jayaprakash to record his statement. He is expected to appear before the team on Tuesday.
On Sunday, the CBI team visited the hostel premises, where Siddharthan was allegedly beaten up by his seniors, his room, and the washroom, where he was found hanging.
Siddharthan was allegedly beaten to death by his seniors and classmates, for reportedly, misbehaving with a female student of the college.
A remand report by the police said that the 20-year-old was stripped down to his underwear and assaulted using a “belt and a cable wire.” It said that the assault began on 16 February at around 9 pm and lasted till 2 am on 17 February.
Siddharthan’s father contended that according to the postmortem report, his son’s body had three days’ worth of injuries and an empty stomach, which indicated that he was assaulted viciously and not given any food.
Jayaprakash also asserted that his son would not have taken his own life. In his meeting with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, he had requested a CBI probe into the matter.
All of the 18 accused students have been arrested and remanded in judicial custody.
Earlier, Dr MK Narayanan, the dean of the college, and R Kanthanadhan, the assistant warden of the men’s hostel, were suspended in connection with the death.
Kerala Governor Arif Mohammad Khan, as Chancellor of Universities in the state, had suspended the Vice Chancellor of the university, Prof (Dr) MR Saseendranath, for negligence. A judicial probe was also ordered to look into the incident.
Allegations of severe harassment and physical torture allegedly from ragging have been raised against members of the Students Federation of India (SFI), the student wing of the ruling CPI(M).
SFI denied the allegations.
(Edited by Shauqueen Mizaj)
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