Thrissur: Members of the BJP and ABVP clashed with the SFI for nearly half an hour with wooden sticks and heavy bamboo poles at Sree Kerala Varma College on Friday morning. As many as 12 students were injured in the clash and they were admitted to the General Hospital and a private hospital in Thrissur. None of the injuries were serious, West Police said. The clashes started during the inauguration of a meet organized by the BJP and ABVP against the alleged highhandedness of the SFI in Kerala.
Former principal of Government Victoria College in Palakkad, Dr Sarasu, against whom the SFI had protested on the day of her retirement last year by making a symbolic grave, inaugurated the meet. The SFI unit of the college said that two of their members were first attacked by the BJP and ABVP men when they went to have tea near the meeting place at the entrance of the college. But the ABVP claimed that the SFI sparked off the violence by pelting stones at them. The BJP-ABVP meeting was soon called as the clashes broke.
West police have recorded the statement of every person from both the sides and have registered cases against more than 25 identifiable persons by invoking IPC 308 for attempt to commit culpable homicide. However, the West police did not deploy any cops at the meeting place and the college although it had witnessed similar incidents of violence in 2015 during the beef fest conducted by the SFI on the campus. But West Police said that they had deployed their personnel at the inaugural event of ESAF at Lulu Convention Center at Puzhakal where Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and opposition leader Ramesh Chennithal were present. “After being informed of the clashes, we rushed to the college,” a cop at the West Police Station told Deccan Chronicle.
