Sippy Noorudhin, secretary of the Kerala Students’ Union (KSU) district unit, allegedly poured discarded motor oil on Higher Secondary Director Keshvendra Kumar after some activists of the organisation barged into the officer’s cabin on Tuesday in protest against the increase in fees for higher secondary courses.
Eight KSU activists were arrested. The KSU leadership disowned the protest.
K.S. Joy, KSU president, told The Hindu that the State or district committees of the organisation had not authorised the protest. “Eight activists, including Sippy, have been suspended from the organisation for six months,” he said.
Mr. Kumar said the KSU activists had rushed into his cabin around 1.45 p.m. Since the office had no security personnel and it was lunch break, nobody could stop them.
“I explained to the activists that a discussion had already been held with the Education Minister for rolling back the fee increase. I told them that the Minister had already asked us to submit a revised fee plan and that a government order would be issued shortly. It was then that I saw one activist take out something from his pocket. I thought it would be a memorandum or something,” Mr. Kumar said.
Seconds later, Sippy jumped up and flung an entire container of oil on Mr. Kumar. The jet-black oil splashed down on paper files kept on Mr. Kumar’s table. The other activists started shouting slogans.
“The fact that some media persons were there to cover this is proof that the event was planned. If the media continue to give publicity to this kind of actions, they will only occur more. Had the media not been there, these persons may not have done what they did,” Mr. Kumar said.
He would brief the Chief Minister and the State Police Chief on the incident.
