Kannur: Kannur University's Anti Ragging Committee dismissed a ragging complaint against Allan Shuaib -- who is being investigated by the NIA for alleged Maoist links -- saying the allegations were related to campus election and did not come under the extent of ragging.
Shuaib, out on bail in the Pantheerankavu UAPA case since October 28, had earlier accused the Students Federation of India (SFI), the students' wing of the ruling CPM, of trying to get his bail revoked by implicating him in a ragging case.
To be sure, the NIA did move the NIA court in Kochi seeking cancellation of Shuaib's bail citing the ragging case. It is coming up for hearing on December 15. The Kerala police had also submitted a report saying Shuaib flouted bail conditions.
The ragging case stemmed from a clash between the SFI and an unorganised student group on the Kannur University's Palayad campus in Thalassery on November 2.
But SFI leader and first-semester LLB student Adhin Subhi P filed a police complaint against Shuaib, an eighth-semester LLB student, and his friend Badharudheen V, a third-semester LLB student, accusing them of ragging and assaulting him. Subhi submitted a copy of his complaint to the university's Anti-Ragging Committee, too.
Acting swiftly, Dharmadam police in Kannur arrested Allan Shuaib. Since the charges were bailable offences, he was let off the same day.
The university's Anti-Ragging Committee conducted the hearing on the complaint on November 7. Shuaib told the committee that he intervened in the clash to save his friend Badharudheen from being bashed up allegedly by SFI members.
Badharudheen told the committee that the complainant Adhin Subhi entered into an argument with him on November 1 and made provocative statements. The next day's clash was a continuation of that argument. The committee said CCTV footage confirmed that Adhin Subhi initiated the conversation with Badharudheen on November 1, and that the conversation ended in a dispute with students gathered around them.
Shuaib's friends on the Palayad campus said the SFI were targeting Shuaib and Badharudheen because they witnessed an assault on Abdulla Mursheed, an LLB student from Kasaragod, in February.
"Today, when the Anti-Ragging Committee rejected the SFI's complaint against Shuaib and Badharudheen, SFI activists assaulted Mursheed again in spite," said a friend. Mursheed suffered injuries to his back and was admitted to Indira Gandhi Co-Operative Hospital in Thalassery on Tuesday.
Pantheerankavu Police of Kozhikode district arrested Allan Shuaib and his friend Thwaha Fasal, a journalism student, under the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) for possessing Maoist literature on the night of November 1, 2019. They were members of the CPM's branch committee when they were arrested.
The Pinarayi Vijayan-led Home Department and the Police Department came under fire from the Opposition parties and the ruling CPI for arresting the students under the UAPA. Both the CPM and the CPI had opposed amendments to the UAPA in Parliament.
Despite the political noise, the students remained in prison for 10 months, with the high court rejecting their bail applications twice.
A Supreme Court bench comprising justices Ajay Rastogi and A S Oka granted bail to the students on October 28.
