Kerala Law Academy Law College Principal Lekshmi Nair is facing the heat as protests demanding her resignation by various student unions intensified on Friday.
A group of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) members barged into Lekshmi Nair's apartment and threatened to commit suicide by jumping off from the top of the building.
Later police forcefully brought the activists down from top of the building. Around 30 ABVP members were part of the protest and they later held a sit in protest in front of the apartment.
Not just student political groups, but even politicians have jumped in.
While Congress, CPI and CPI(M) have supported the student protests, Bharatiya Janata Party national executive member V Muraleedharan has declared an indefinite hunger strike until the government takes action. He had initially been on a 48 hour hunger strike since Wednesday.
"The situation is so grave that it's easier to list out rules followed by the management rather than the violations. We have decided to extend the present 48-hour hunger strike into an indefinite one," said State BJP President Kummanem Rajashekeran.
The march held by All India Students Federation (AISF) to the secretariat also turned violent, the police had to lathi charge and use water cannons to block protesters from entering the Kerala secretariat campus.
Various student organisations has been staging protest outside the college for last 18 days demanding college Principal Lekshmi Nair's resignation alleging mismanagement and oppression.
Political leaders cutting across party affiliations dropped in at the protest venue to express their solidarity with the cause. This included state Leader of Opposition Ramesh Chennithala, former Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan, State Congress President V.M. Sudheeran, Rajasekheran, CPI State Secretary Kanam Rajendran, K S Sabarinathan MLA, KP Sasikala, K Surendran and BJP President Kummanam Rajasekharan among others.
Students and political leaders have been demanding Nair's resignation on the grounds that she misbehaved with students, especially Dalit students and had flouted many rules of the college.
They even went on to accuse her of using her discretion to arbitrarily award internal marks to students she favoured, and harass those she did not approve of.
Students had even alleged that they were forced to work at Lekshmi Nair’s restaurant in Thiruvananthapuram.
Numerous complaints from students and parents have been made before the nine-member Kerala University Syndicate probe team in its three-day sitting, which ended on Thursday. Their report will be placed before the syndicate on Saturday.
Established in 1968 by Narayanan Nair, who is now the institute's director, the Kerala Law Academy has among its alumni many leading politicians, judges, lawyers, high ranking police officers and bureaucrats.