Four persons, including a police officer, were injured in clashes between student activists and police near the Commissioner’s office in Kochi on Tuesday morning. The students were protesting against the raids conducted by police at hostels of six colleges here.
Activists of the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) took out a march to the Commissioner’s office around 10.30 a.m. The police blocked the entrance to the office and the protesters began shouting slogans. The march turned violent after a few stones were pelted at the police from the direction of the students. The police then began lathicharging the protesters.
Palarivattom sub-inspector M.K. Sajeev was injured in the stone-pelting. Three students of the Law College, Dhruv Kumar, Lasim Yousuf, and Vishnu, were also injured in the stone-throwing and subsequent lathicharge.
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The Central police have registered a case against several protesters on charge of voluntarily causing hurt to a public servant to deter him from duty.
SFI workers alleged that the violence was initiated by members of the rival Kerala Students’ Union (KSU), who were trying to disrupt the march. KSU office-bearers, meanwhile, said that they had no part to play in the violence. Secretary of the SFI’s Law College unit Amal C.S. said that the police had treated them unfairly during the raid on Monday. “Police came in to the hostel after 6 p.m. Final year students of the Law College had their examinations on Tuesday and the raid disrupted their preparations,” he said.
The city police, meanwhile, said the special drive against drug use on campuses had yielded good results. As many as 185 cases were registered in the city in the last two-and-a-half months for use and possession of drugs, under the special ‘Clean Campus, Safe Campus’ drive. The parents of students who had been found using drugs were summoned and the students were put through counselling sessions, the police said in a communication.
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