KOCHI: The six students of Maharaja's College, arrested for defacing the college walls and damaging public property, have denied the charges and sought a probe into the incident. In a statement, they said that the SFI was spreading lies about them as they had left the organisation following ideological differences. "We were part of the SFI, but came out of it following differences of opinion a few weeks ago. We were on bail in a case registered against us in those days for altercation with SFI activists," the arrested students said in a statement on Thursday.
The statement was signed by Rakesh Kalmadi, Nithin Vijayan, Anand Dinesh, Arjun Anand, Muhammad Shijas, K.A. Mujeeb, Anaswara Vishwanathan and Santhini P. Kuttikkal. "The police and the college principal were engaged in a conspiracy to portray us as anti-social elements," they said. "Since no complaints are pending against us, a probe should be ordered into the circumstances that led to the police filing a case against us," they added.
The Kerala Vidyarthi Sanghadana (KVS) associated with the CPI-ML (Red Flag) has condemned the action against the students. The police had framed the dissident SFI activists in the case, Mr Sachin K. Tomy, state secretary of KV, said. The college principal had adopted a fascist policy by giving a free hand to the police in the affairs of the campus, he said. The principal who had misunderstood autonomy as autocracy should be removed from the post, he added.
