A tense drama, lasting four hours, unfolded outside the Kerala Law Academy Law College here on Tuesday. An agitating student, an ABVP activist, climbed a tree and threatened to commit suicide. A 73-year-old onlooker collapsed and was declared dead later.
Officials were kept on tenterhooks after Shimith, a final year student of three-year LLB course, climbed on to a tree, reportedly armed with cans of petrol and poison, around 2 p.m.
The authorities relented to one of his demands — to impound college Principal P. Lekshmi Nair’s passport. His other demands included immediate arrest of Ms. Nair under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989; and consideration of students’ demands at a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday.
On receiving an alert, the police and Fire and Rescue Services personnel rushed to the spot. However, their efforts to negotiate with Shimith were thwarted by other agitators,
At 6 p.m., Executive Magistrate A.M. Rahman announced that the District Collector had conveyed the demands to Home Secretary Nalini Netto. He told them that the Deputy Commissioner of Police would request the passport officer to impound Ms. Nair’s passport. The other demands would be considered by the government, he added.
