Koyilandy College suspends 4 SFI activists for attacking principal

Kozhikode: Gurudeva College of Advanced Studies, Koyilandi has suspended four SFI activists who attacked the principal Sunil Bhaskaran on Monday. The punished students are Teju Sunil (second year BBA student), Teju Lakshmi (third year BBA student), Amal Raj (second year BCom student) and Abhishek S Santhosh (third year psychology student).

These students were part of the group that wanted to set up a help desk in the college, which later became the main reason for the dispute with the principal of the institution. “The students are suspended with immediate effect for mistreating college officials and interfering in the administrative affairs of the college,” the suspension notice said.

The college has been closed since Monday’s incident. Clashes broke out between the principal and students when SFI activists tried to open a help desk for an integrated undergraduate programme. SFI claimed that they had sought permission to open such a facility, but the principal attacked district committee chairman Abhinav, who is not a student of the college, and sustained an eardrum injury.

However, the principal claimed that he was beaten up by the SFI management after he asked them to wait for a few minutes while he attended an online meeting.

The video footage of the students beating Bhaskar went viral after news channels reported the incident.

Both the school principal and the SFI director were undergoing treatment at different hospitals on Monday. The Koyilandy police registered cases based on the complaints from both the parties.

Acting on Bhaskar’s complaint, the police have registered cases under seven sections of the Bharatiya Nyay Samhita against 15 unidentified persons. The police have also registered cases against the principal and college personnel secretary Rameshan after Abhinav physically assaulted and threatened him.

On Tuesday, an SFI leader’s speech at a march sparked another controversy when he said Bhaskar should not be allowed to walk on two legs anymore. “The principal who attacked the SFI leader will not go to the college on two legs anymore,” said SFI area secretary Navatej. “These are not empty words, we can do this,” he added.

“SFI knows how to deal with such a teacher. We are keeping our peace now. We did not plan to attack the principal and take him to the hospital. But if we had, we would have done that too,” Navtej said.