Kozhikode: Cops warn more campus arrests

Kozhikode: Gangs with unlikely names and even names that are changed every year have been mushrooming in Zamorin’s Guruvayoorappan College and the police, who are watching their criminal activities, said arrests would be stepped up  in the coming days.

The arrest of a cine actor on Sunday, in a case of extortion, was the latest, they say and the gangs that change their names almost every year, try to woo newcomers and increase their popularity. Currently, the college has five prominent gangs, namely, Kshathriyas, Aryas, Brahmas, Gupthas and Yadavas.

Police says that the gangs facilitate all kinds of illegal activities including drug sales and they get support from all political parties. “When the gangs have members/sympathisers from all political parties, even when power shifts, they do not face any problem. No political leaders are interested in dealing with such criminal activities inside a campus,” said Kasaba CI P. Pramod. He added that even students when refused to pay a minimum of Rs 100 as ‘contribution’, they faced “extreme torture.”

According to social activist Dr MG Mallika, who is a teacher at the same college, the parents as well the teachers have a major role in formation of gangs and criminal mentality of the students here.“The students who lacked care and attention at home, immediately receive publicity, even if negative, for all their wrongdoings. None of them identifies as a class topper or are winners in B-zone or interzone festivals, but these are the students who get involved in crimes. Thus they take up these activities as a publicity stunt,” she added.

T. Sobheendran, environmentalist and former teacher of the college, said that the issue was grave and should not be dealt with peripherally. “These gangs need to be taken out of the campus. A trial by people should be held against these anti-social elements, in the presence of their parents before expelling them,” he said.