Kalpetta: The family of JS Sidharthan, the second-year student of Bachelor in Veterinary Sciences (BVSc) who was found dead in his hostel following brutal torture by his seniors, will move the Kerala High Court against the Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University's (KVASU) decision to allow eight students, all prime accused in the case, to sit for the examination.

They have already appealed to the KVASU vice-chancellor and the Governor against letting the students appear for exams at the Pookkode campus.

On Thursday, the University administration wing here issued an order, citing a High Court directive, that allowed all key accused in the case to appear for the examination. They can attend the examination at the Mannuthy Centre of the University as there is a court order banning their entry to the Pookkode campus.

Sidharthan's father T Jayaprakash told Onmanorama that the family has already approached the office of the vice-chancellor and Governor Arif Mohammed Khan. "We were told that the decision was taken at the lower rungs of administration and will be rectified soon. The decision will be revoked and none of the accused will be allowed to write the examination,” he said.

"We will be soon approaching the High Court as the varsity officials had permitted the accused to appear for the examination citing an HC directive", he said.

On the HC directive, Jayaprakash said the University counsel should have opposed the plea of the accused when it came up for hearing. “I fear that when the counsel of the accused misled the HC by suppressing facts and submitting false contentions, the varsity counsel might have either kept mum or supported the plea of the accused,” he added.

Despite being named in the charge-sheet former college union president K Arun, RS Kasinathan, Ameen Akbar Ali, Muhammed Danish, Rehan Benoy, V Adithyan, A Althaf, and A Soudh Risal were allowed to sit for the exam. The students were expelled from the Veterinary College, following the the recommendation of the Anti-Ragging Committee.

Sources point out that the accused students have spent more than three months in jail in a criminal conspiracy case and they will only have less than 75 per cent attendance. This bars them from writing exams, as per the norms of the Veterinary Council of India.

They also point out that varsity officials' decision to issue an order in favour of the accused seems dubious as they neither tried to submit the facts regarding the accused's attendance nor attempted to file an appeal against the directive at the HC.

Sidharthan was found dead on February 18, after allegedly being subjected to brutal ragging and mob trials. The postmortem revealed that he was subjected to brutal torture and was denied food for many days. In its charge-sheet the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) said the brutal torture by the accused led to the youth's death.