Kerala veterinary student was tortured for 29 hours: Police report handed to CBI

Kerala veterinary student JS Sidharthan was tortured continuously for 29 hours by seniors and classmates before he was found hanging in his hostel bathroom on February 18, the case file handed over by Kerala Police to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) reportedly says.

The CBI on Friday (April 5) lodged an FIR against 21 persons in connection with Sidharthan’s death, charging them under provisions of the Kerala Prohibition of Ragging Act and relevant legal sections involving criminal conspiracy and abetment to suicide.

Kerala HC order

The move came after the Kerala High Court on Friday directed the Centre to issue a notification promptly entrusting the probe to the central agency. The student’s father Jayprakash T had moved a petition seeking expeditious transfer of the probe to the CBI.

Sidharthan, 20, was a second-year undergraduate student at the College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences in Kerala’s Wayanad district. It has been alleged that brutal ragging by fellow students led to his death.

The remand report filed by the police had also detailed the inhuman ragging Sidharthan had allegedly undergone. However, the Kerala government agreed to hand over the probe to the CBI after the family submitted a representation to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

SI’s report

According to a report in The Indian Express, sub-inspector Prashobh PV of Vythiri police station has detailed how seniors and classmates “physically and mentally tortured” Sidharthan in the police case file. They allegedly assaulted him from 9 am on February 16 to 2 pm on February 17 “continuously with hand and using a belt and subjected him to cruel ragging”.

This inhuman torture drove him to such a “stage of mental stress” that he was left with the feeling that he could neither continue at the institute to complete the course nor go home by dropping it, says the police report. “…he felt that there [was] no option for him other than suicide,” the report adds.

Sidharthan reportedly hanged himself in the bathroom of the men’s hostel between 12.30 pm and 13.45 pm on February 18, according to the report. Police have concluded in its probe that Sidharthan was “physically and mentally tortured” by some senior students and classmates, the report says.

CBI’s FIR

The CBI has reportedly stated in its FIR that it was initially registered under Section 174 of CrPC. However, after SI Prashobh filed an application in court to add new sections, a new FIR has added charges under IPC sections 120 (criminal conspiracy), 306 (abetment to suicide), 323 (causing hurt), 342 (illegal confinement), 506 (threatening), 355 (assault), and the Kerala Prohibition of Ragging Act.

Among the accused named by the CBI are SFI president Arun K, SFI unit secretary Amal Ihsan, SFI members Asif Khan and Abhishek S, and students Akhil K, Kashinadhan RS, Ameen Akbarali, Arun K, Sinjo Johnson, Ajay J, Althaf A, Soud Risal EK, Adithyan, Muhammed Dhanish, Rehan Binoy, Akash SD, Shreehari RD, Dons Dai, Billgate Joshwa Thannikkode, Naseer V, and Abhi V, says the Indian Express report.