Tension prevailed at Ayur in Kollam, on Tuesday, July 19, as protest marches organised by various student outfits towards a private educational institute where girl students appearing for NEET exam were forced to remove their undergarments turned violent. Visuals showed agitating students smashing the windows of the institute using sticks, prompting the police to use force to remove them from the premises.
Student activists entered the college premises breaking the police cordon, leading to vandalism, following which the police opened lathicharge on the protesting students. Some student activists have suffered wounds in the police action, reports say. More police personnel have been deputed to the spot to bring the situation under control, the police said.
The frisking of students in Kerala ahead of the NEET exam and complaints that female students were forced to remove their bra triggered a big row across the country. The issue came to light on Monday when the father of a 17-year-old girl told the media that his daughter, who was sitting for her first-ever NEET exam, had to sit without her innerwear as she was asked to remove her bra — as the metal hooks were a ‘security concern’. The incident took place at the Mar Thoma Institute of Information Technology, Ayur, where the students were asked to remove their bras.
While the National Testing Agency, which conducts NEET, has denied that they received any complaint about this incident, more parents have come forward with similar allegations — that female students were asked to remove their bras and sit for the examination without any innerwear.
However, authorities of the Kollam institute claimed that none of their staff was involved in the frisking process and two agencies were assigned the job by the National Testing Agency (NTA). On Tuesday, the NTA denied receiving any complaints and claimed that the Centre Superintendent, the Independent Observer, as well as the City Coordinator of Kollam district also said that no such incident was reported at the examination hall.
The Kerala police have registered a case against the officials who frisked the student based on the student’s father’s complaint. The police have registered a case under Sections 354 (Assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) and 509 (Word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the Indian Penal Code and an investigation is underway.
(With PTI inputs)