Thiruvananthapuram: The ongoing probe into Friday's violence on the campus of the University College in Kerala's Thiruvananthapuram district has opened up parallel investigations into malpractices in both university and police recruitment examinations. It has come to light that a few SFI activists accused in the stabbing of student Akhil on the campus that day had cleared the police recruitment test with apparent favours from political leaders.
Meanwhile, the Kerala University has ordered an investigation over the discovery of answer sheets of varsity examinations from the house of the main accused in the stabbing case which has been registered as an attempt-to-murder incident.
Four full answer sheet sets comprising of 12 pages and 11 sets of answer sheets with less than 10 pages were found from the house of Sivaranjith, who had allegedly stabbed Akhil.
Sivaranjith is the president of the SFI unit at the University College.
The discovery of university answer sheets at the accused's house is a serious crime, Vice Chancellor V P Mahadevan Pillai said. “The college authorities have failed. An inquiry will be conducted in this matter. The university seal had not been misplaced,” Pillai added.
Apart from the additional answer sheets, the police had recovered the seal of a Physical Education officer from Sivaranjith's house at Karthika Nagar in Attukal. Reporters who reached the spot were manhandled by his relatives.
The Cantonment police had inspected Sivaranjith's house.
The VC also said that the university was subject to certain restrictions when it came to intervening in government colleges. “The responsibility of storing answer sheets lies with the respective centres and principals. In view of the new development, the stock will be re-examined,” the VC said.
The University has already suspended six accused in the case. CPM youth wing SFI too had suspended them.
The seizure of exam papers and varsity seal comes amid allegations that SFI leaders accused in the campus violence case cleared exams by resorting to malpractices. The police raided the houses of the SFI leaders after launching a probe into complaints that these youths had found a place in the rank list for police personnel through dubious ways.
Special Branch probe
The Special Branch has already started an investigation into charges that the SFI members were given special consideration and allotted University College itself as the centre for the Public Service Commission (PSC) exam for police recruitment.
The police will now approach PSC for details.
Cancel police rank list: Ex DGP
Meanwhile, former DGP T P Senkumar demanded the police rank list be cancelled and a re-examination held after the accused became the toppers in the PSC exam. According to Senkumar, it was suspicious that the first accused in the attempt-to-murder case also came first in the rank list for police constables.
While Sivaranjith is the first rank holder, Naseem, another accused, got the 28th rank. P P Pranav, another SFI leader in University College, is placed second.