KOCHI: Deploring the recent spate of violence against self-financing colleges in the state, the Kerala High Court on Thursday directed the government to furnish details of the incidents in which educational institutions and people associated with them were attacked.
A Division Bench of the HC issued the interim order on the petition filed by the principal of KMCT Polytechnic College, Pazhur, Kuttipuram, seeking police protection. The court has also directed the government to file details of the cases and those who have been booked in connection with the violence. “The Home Secretary to government shall also furnish details of the steps, if any, that are taken to prevent repetition of such incidents,” the court said.
The petitioner submitted a group of students detained him with the help of some outsiders and damaged the assets of the college. The petitioner had approached the High Court after a group of suspended students, along with some antisocial elements, created law and order issue on the campus by detaining teachers and the director of the institution.
The incident took place despite the court, based on an earlier petition, passing an interim order sanctioning police protection to the college. The students also destroyed some valuable college documents and brought the functioning of the college to a standstill.
“There are CCTV footages of the incident. The room was unlocked after the police arrived.
But the agitators did not allow the petitioner to move out of the room from 9.30 am to 2.30 pm. They started damaging the furniture, windows, bathroom fittings, college buses, cars belonging to the petitioner and a teaching faculty without any provocation in the presence of police personnel, including a CI.Though the college staff requested the police to prevent the students from destroying college properties, they did not intervene,” the petition stated. The court posted the case to January 27.