Thiruvananthapuram: A round-the-clock protest by SFI on the Kerala University campus, demanding the immediate release of Rs 50 lakh for conducting the university youth festival, turned violent on Tuesday. Protesters crossed police barricades, entered administrative areas and blocked the registrar and staff. Vice chancellor Mohanan Kunnummal was not present in his office at the time. Following the developments, the vice chancellor communicated the situation to the governor, who directed the state police chief to remove the protesters from the campus. After several hours of stand-off, police cleared the agitators. The vice chancellor is learned to have instructed the registrar to file a police complaint against those who damaged university property and disrupted office functioning by forcibly entering the premises. The vice chancellor also directed that university union elections be conducted in Feb. He maintained that the outgoing union could not be entrusted with organizing the youth festival, as a new committee was due to take charge. The present union had already conducted a festival in 2025, he noted. Meanwhile, the University Registrar lodged another complaint against certain syndicate members, alleging that they colluded with protesting students during a separate incident earlier this week, when violence was reported in the vice chancellor’s chamber. It was alleged that two CPM-backed syndicate members encouraged the protesters and obstructed university security staff from performing their duties.
