Cochin Devaswom Board not to take action against college professor for beef fest statement

Thrissur: Ms Deepa Nishant, assistant professor of Sree Kerala Varma College here, can relax as the Cochin Devaswom Board has decided not to take any action against her on her Facebook post on the beef controversy.

“The post is a matter of individual freedom and the CDB has nothing to do with it,” it said after a board meeting here on Friday. It also found that she had no role in the clashes between two groups of students during the ‘beef fest’ conducted on the college campus on October 1.

The SFI, which conducted the fest, and several alumni of the college held a meeting on Friday expressing their solidarity with the professor.

CDB president M.P. Bhaskaran Nair said that Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala and KPCC president V.M. Sudheeran had asked him to deal with the issue judiciously.

“We reviewed the report of the principal on the controversy and it said that the assistant professor had no role in the clashes between the SFI and ABVP in connection with the fest,” Mr Nair said.

The CDB, which manages the SKV college, made it clear that there was no Ayyappa temple on the campus as claimed by the pro-Parivar organisations and said that there was a practice of lighting a traditional lamp beneath the banyan tree. It said that non-vegetarian food should not be officially allowed on the campus as per the norms of the college.

Ms Deepa said the CDB decision was on the expected lines and thanked everyone who stood by her in the controversy. “I am happy that the right to protest has been upheld,” she said.