THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a contentious move, Thiruvananthapuram city police have registered cases against parents and their wards who attended the Kerala Engineering Architecture Medical (KEAM) entrance examination in two city schools for violating social distancing norms. As many as four students and a parent who accompanied his son have tested positive for COVID-19.
About 400 people, who could be identified, were booked by Museum and Medical College police. Police sources said that the cases were registered on July 16, the day the exams were held. The cases were registered against parents and wards who appeared for the exams at Cottonhill Government Girls HSS and St Mary's Pattom HSS, which fell under Museum and Medical College police stations, respectively.
The cases were registered under the Kerala Epidemic Diseases Ordinance. Medical College police sources said they had booked 300 identifiable people under the ordinance. "We have written to the authorities concerned to hand us over the details of the students who had appeared for the exams," said Medical College police sources.
Meanwhile, the decision has invited strong reactions from various corners. Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor wrote on his Facebook page that he was shocked to learn about the incident.
"The student community and political leaders, incuding myself, had requested the government to postpone this exam in the wake of the pandemic gripping the state. They unwisely went ahead, and several students who appeared for the exam have tested positive in the last 48 hours," he wrote.
Alleging that by filing police cases the government was acting against the citizenry to cover up its own incompetence, Tharoor urged the government to withdraw the cases.