Kozhikode: SFI and Fraternity Movement have alleged that a man elected as a student representative to the Calicut University Senate was actually a panchayat employee and not a regular student.
SFI has filed a complaint against Ameen Rashid, one of the four elected student representatives of the Muslim Student Federation (MSF). The election to the senate was held on June 14.
C H Amal, an SFI candidate who also was elected to the senate, has complained to the university vice-chancellor the registrar, who was also the returning officer for the election. Amal has demanded the disqualification of Ameen.
In the complaint, Amal said that Ameen was employed as a contract staff at the Thachanattukara grama panchayat in Palakkad. “As per senate statutes, a student representative must be a regular student in a college. But Ameen is a panchayat staff,” said K V Anurag, Kozhikode district secretary of SFI.
Thachanatukara grama panchayat secretary confirmed to the media that Ameen was indeed working as a project assistant for two years. But since March, he was not on duty, the official said.
Talking to Onmanorama, Ameen denied any irregularities on his part and said he was a student of SeeDac College of Arts and Science at Mannarkkad. He said he joined college after leaving the panchayat job in March. “I joined the college last December for BA in Economics. I was not able to attend the classes till March 2023 as I was working. After the vacation, I started attending classes regularly. Even before that, I was in touch with the college and teachers,” Ameen said.
However, he did not say when he started attending classes regularly after the April-May vacation. “I used to go to the classes and attended some classes online. I also got notes through WhatsApp after the April-May vacation,” he said.