Kalpetta: The CPM-affiliated 'Teachers’ Organization of Veterinary University of Kerala’ (TOVUK) is learnt to have launched a fund mobilization drive to provide legal aid to former Dean M K Narayanan and Assistant Warden R Kanthanathan, who were suspended following the suicide of second-year student J S Sidharthan in the Pookode campus of the university.

The petition submitted by Narayanan and Kanthanathan requesting to be reinstated in service is pending at the High Court. The organisation has 150 members in various colleges and on the KVASU campus.

It has been directed that each member should contribute a minimum of Rs 2000. According to sources, the organisation aims at mobilizing Rs 5 lakhs to provide legal aid to the two members.

However, a section of teachers have expressed protest over the fund mobilisation as even the members of the organization had registered their dissent against supporting the teachers who either colluded or connived with the SFI leaders accused of subjecting Siddharthan to brutal torture. Onmanorama contacted Dr K S Ajith, the General Secretary of the organisation, for a comment, but there was no response.

The judicial commission appointed to probe the suicide of Sidharthan had pointed out major lapses on the part of former Vice Chancellor Dr M R Saseendranath and various other teachers. The body of Sidharthan was found hanging in the toilet of the hostel on February 18.

According to the post-mortem report, he was subjected to extreme physical torture before his death. A native of Nedumangad, near Thiruvananthapuram, the kith and kin of the student had alleged that the youth was killed and hanged by SFI goons. All the accused involved in the case were SFI leaders.