Modi in list of 'negative faces' along with Hitler, Bush, Laden; students booked

Thrissur: Four students of a government polytechnic at Kuzhoor here and three others, including its principal, were on Tuesday booked by police for featuring in their campus magazine a photograph of Prime Minister Narendra Modi under a list of "negative faces" along with Adolf Hitler, George W. Bush, Osama bin Laden and a few others.

Cases had been registered against four students, associated with the magazine, its Principal M N Krishnan Kutty, staff editor Gopi and the owner of a printing press for offences under Indian Penal Code (IPC) including concealing design to commit offence, want only giving provocation, punishment for defamation and printing matter known to be defamatory.

The campus magazine for 2013-14 was released on June 4 and one of its pages titled 'negative faces' featured a photograph of Modi. Others figuring in the collage include, sandalwood smuggler Veerappan, LTTE supremo V Prabhakaran, Adolf Hitler, Al-Qaeda chief Laden and George W. Bush, police said.

They said the case was booked on a complaint by a social worker Subash. The magazine was brought out by a team of campus editors of the institution, whose student union is controlled by a pro-Left campus outfit. The polytechnic authorities hinted that the magazine would be withdrawn as it has sparked a controversy.

Local BJP workers staged a protest and burnt copies of the controversial magazine.