Kasargod: After five days of languishing in jail, PhD scholar and Dalit activist at Central University of Kerala (CUK) Ganthothi Nagaraju has been granted bail by Hosdurg First Class Magistrate court on Tuesday.
Mr Nagaraju was put behind bars for ‘breaking the window pane of the fire extinguisher at hostel’. Mr Nagaraju, who hails from Telangana, was close to Rohit Vemula at Hyderabad University and had actively intervened in students’ issues under Ambedkar Students’ Association (ASA) at CUK. He was arrested by Bekal police on August 9 in plain clothes, a month after the incident, as per the complaint of CUK registrar. But police confides that the issue would have been solved within the campus but they were forced to frame the case on the insistence of the university.
“The incident is the latest of a series of issues terrorising students. Nagaraju was targeted because he dared to speak against the CUK administration which violated UGC guidelines in stipend distribution, hostel admission etc and has been pursuing anti-student policies,” said Sonu. S. Pappachan, ASA unit secretary. “In the past one year alone, one student has been rusticated, five were expelled from hostels and one student suspended for a Facebook post, all under false and exaggerated charges. These arbitrary actions have been imposed on students from marginalised sections, especially those who are politically active,” he said.
“It is extremely saddening to know that our student is lying on the cold floor of the prison cell on charges of breaking a glass pane. I strongly condemn this arrest and appeal to the authorities to immediately secure the release of our student,” lamented head of the Department of Comparative Literature and English and associate professor Prasad Pannian in an FB post.
CUK Pro-Vice Chancellor Dr K. Jayaprasad, however, denied caste angle to the complaint. “How can the issue of destroying public property solved within the campus? Neither the head of the department nor guide of Nagaraju had not come to discuss the issue before the arrest. The university has sacked only one student as of now, that too for substance abuse,” he said.
