The management of Nehru College of Engineering and Research Centre at Pambady in Thrissur on Thursday suspended three persons pending inquiry in connection with death of Jishnu Pranoy, a computer science student of the college.
Vice principal N.K. Sakthivel, faculty member C.P. Praveen, and Public Relations Officer of the college K.V. Sanjith, have been suspended as part of the on-going inquiry by a three-member commission instituted by the college management, according to a college press release.
The management requested students, parents, teachers, and local people to cooperate with it to reopen the college as early as possible.
The Nehru Group management also expressed its heartfelt condolence at the death of the student and said that it would cooperate with any investigation in the case.
To meet Minister
Special Correspondent adds from Thiruvananthapuram: Meanwhile, under attack from various political parties and student organisations following Jishnu’s death, representatives of self-financing engineering colleges will on Friday reach out to the government to put an end to the ongoing controversy.
Representatives of the managements’ association of self-financing colleges are scheduled to meet Education Minister C. Ravindranath on Friday.
Association president Jory Mathai told The Hindu on Thursday that the representatives would seek to impress upon the Minister that the “agitation of destruction” cannot continue.
Guilty will be punished
The association welcomes any inquiry into the death of the student. If anyone is found guilty, they should be punished.
However, the tactics of destroying property of colleges cannot be tolerated, he said.
KTU decision hailed
In reply to a question, Mr. Mathai said the association welcomed the move by APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University (KTU) to appoint an ombudsman for grievance redressal in colleges affiliated to the university.
There is a body of opinion in the association which feels that the officials of the Nehru College erred in not promptly reporting that Jishnu had been caught committing examination malpractice.
“A section of the media have now misquoted the examination controller of the KTU as saying that the student did not commit malpractice. What the controller told the mediapersons was that the college did not report the matter to the KTU that the student had committed a malpractice. I feel that the college should have reported the incident promptly,” one association official said on condition of anonymity.
