Two weeks after the death of a 20-year-old Veterinary college student in Kerala’s Pookode, the Kalpetta police of Wayanad, on Monday, March 4, continued with the evidence collection process at the premises of the College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences. On Monday, a team led by Kalpetta Deputy Superintendent of Police (DySP) TN Sajeevan, visited a hill located adjacent to the college men’s hostel along with two of the accused in the case – Rahan Binoy and Akash.
As per reports, it was in this hill where the deceased student Sidharthan was taken by the duo on the night of February 16. Kashinanthan, another accused, was waiting for them on the hill. They are reported to have questioned Sidharthan about him allegedly misbehaving with a woman student and went on to physically assault him.
Following this, they were reported to have taken him to room numbers 21 and 36 of the men’s hostel where SFI leaders Amal Ihsan and Sinjo Johnson stayed.
The remand report had suggested that Siddharthan was subjected to physical abuse at various campus locations, including the two hostel rooms.
During the evidence collection on Sunday, the police had recovered a wire and a pair of slippers, which were allegedly used to assault the victim.
According to reports, the police will soon add Section 120 B (criminal conspiracy to commit an offence) of the Indian Penal Code in the case.
Sidharthan was found dead in the hostel bathroom on February 18. While the police initially considered it as a case of suicide, the post-mortem report and further investigation revealed that Sidharthan was brutally assaulted by his college mates days before his death, many of them being members of the Students Federation of India (SFI), an organisation linked to the Communist Party of India (Marxist).
In connection with this, police arrested eight students, identified as, J Ajay, A Althaf, EK Soud Risal, Sinjo Johnson, V Adithyan, M Muhammad Danish, and RS Kashinanthan.
Reports say, most of the students were sleeping when the incident occurred, and the accused woke up the people and encouraged them to beat them. Then they took him to the dormitory and again beat him up. Then a senior student Amal came onto the scene, beat Siddhart and dismissed the people there.