Wayanad: Kerala governor Arif Mohammed Khan who is the chancellor of the universities in Kerala has put on hold the decision of the Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (KVASU) to reinstate dean MK Narayanan and assistant warden R Kanthanathan, who were suspended in connection with the death of second-year student JS Sidharthan.

Khan's action comes after Vice-Chancellor Prof K S Anil refused to implement the decision of the university's Managing Council to reinstate the two and had written to the Secretary of the Raj Bhavan seeking further instructions. 

The Save University Campaign Committee (SUCC), a whistleblower organisation, also petitioned the Governor against the reinstatement on Thursday, September 26.

In a statement released on Friday, SUCC said the Justice (retired) A Hariprasad Committee, appointed by the Chancellor, had found Dr Narayanan and Kanthanathan guilty of dereliction of duty and recommended departmental action against the two officials. "The university's Managing Council considered the report and decided to reinstate the two officials in service without taking any action under cover of the majority opinion," SUCC said.

Narayanan and Kanthanathan have been in suspension for six months. The university took action after police launched an investigation into the death of Sidharthan, a second-year student at the university's Pookode campus, on February 18, 2024.

The autopsy report indicated that Sidharthan was brutally abused and assaulted, and denied food for days in the hostel. The student, a native of Nedumangad near Thiruvananthapuram, was later found dead, hanging, in the hostel toilet.

His family alleged he was killed and then hanged in the toilet by students associated with the Students’ Federation of India (SFI), the students' wing of the ruling CPM.

On September 24, the Management Council of the university decided to reinstate Narayanan and Kanthanathan at the College of Avian Sciences and Management in Palakkad's Thiruvizhamkunnu.

The decision of the veterinary university's Managing Council Body will send a wrong message to the academic community and that such actions should not be decided based on a majority vote, said the Save University Campaign Committee.