Veterinary Student Death: Police Arrests Main Accused From Palakkad (image: facebook.com/KVASUPOOKODE)The Vythiri police on Thursday arrested Akhil, the prime suspect in the death of veterinary university student at Pookkode. He has been detained from Palakkad. On Wednesday, Police arrested six students of Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (KVASU) in connection with the death of JS Siddharth (20), a second-year degree student of the campus.
Sidharth was found hanging in the college hostel bathroom on February 18. According to the post-mortem report, deceased student went through extreme physical torture and some of the injuries on the body were two to three days old.
Police arrested six of the 18 students over the ragging-related death, the number may increase, the police adds. Earlier, police had lodged case against 12 persons in connection with the case and they are still absconding. Following Siddharth’s death, the university had suspended the 12 main accused from the institution and the hostel.
The arrested are identified as Rehan Vinoy (20), SD Akash (22), RD Sreehari (23), S Abhishek (23), Donce Day (23), and Bilgates Joshua (23). They all belonged to SFI, the student organisation of CPI(M). All accused were among the eight students taken into police custody by the investigation team.
The accused were charged under IPC 306 (abetment of suicide), section 323 (voluntarily causing hurt to any person), section 324 (hurting with dangerous weapons), section 341 (wrongful restraint of any person) and section 342 (wrongful confinement). Aside from this, they were also booked under sections 3 and 4 of the Kerala Prohibition of Ragging Act, 1998.
Earlier on Wednesday, the deceased student’s father T Jayaprakash alleged that CPI(M) is protecting the accused since all of them are party workers or belong to SFI. Leader of Opposition VD Satheesan also stated that the accused were SFI activists and they had beaten Siddharth to death. Meanwhile, SFI denied allegations, and its State President, Anusree, responded that none of the accused were members of the organisation currently.
According to sources, Siddharth was subjected to torture following a Valentine’s Day event.