A judicial commission probe report, submitted on Wednesday, July 17, to Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan, has found serious lapses on the part of Dr M.R. Saseendranath, the suspended vice-chancellor (V-C) of the Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, in a case involving the death of a student JS Sidharthan.
The second year student’s body was found in a hostel washroom in his college in Wayanad on February 18. Following the incident, the V-C was suspended and a judicial probe ordered. Retired Justice A Hariprasad was asked to probe lapses, if any, on the part of the university administration.
The report states there was absolute chaos in the university and there was a serious lapse on the part of the V-C. Apart from the V-C, the report has blamed the top officials, including the dean and hostel warden of the university for not doing their job properly.
Governor Khan decided to seek a judicial probe after reading the postmortem report which stated that the student’s stomach was empty. He had said something was "fishy" as neither the dean nor the warden knew of what was happening for days with regard to the student.
Eighteen students, most of them belonging to the Students Federation of India linked to the ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist) were arraigned as accused and were in jail for more than two months before securing bail.
Reacting to the judicial report findings, Jayaprakash, father of Siddarth said the need of the hour is that those found guilty of failing to act should be dealt with severely and a mere suspension will not achieve anything.
Incidentally, this report comes out at a time when the CBI probe is also progressing.