Thiruvananthapuram: The SFI has approached the state police chief challenging the attempt-to-murder charges registered against its activists who joined a protest. The organisation has sought an SIT probe to determine the facts of the incident.In its complaint, SFI termed the imposition of attempt-to-murder charges against students “a matter of serious concern”. It said the inclusion of such a serious offence could adversely affect the students’ education and future. The organisation also sought a review of the charges registered against the students.The outfit has urged the police to collect and examine CCTV footage from the spot, police camera recordings, visuals aired by the media and videos recorded on mobile phones to ascertain what actually happened during the protest.The complaint also sought verification of medical records and other details from the hospitals where the police personnel allegedly sought treatment, in order to establish the veracity of the allegations made in the complaints.Attempt-to-murder cases have been registered against 31 people, including SFI state president M Sivaprasad and secretary P S Sanjeev. A case has also been registered against Vaishnavi, who was injured in the police lathicharge on the protesters the previous day.The case alleges that the protesters attempted to attack a police officer at the SAP camp. According to the FIR, they allegedly tried to hit Jayakrishnan, a member of the SAP battalion, on the head with a wooden stick and attacked him using their hands and a stick.The SFI protest was held against the full rendition of the national song Vande Mataram at a national sports day programme organised at Kerala University. Police resorted to a lathi charge when the protesters took out a march in connection with the issue.Meanwhile, leader of opposition Pinarayi Vijayan strongly criticised the police action against student protesters, alleging that the students were subjected to severe and targeted assault during the lathicharge. After visiting the injured SFI activists at the hospital, he said the police beat the protesters targeting vital parts of their bodies and alleged that the students were subjected to large-scale violence.He particularly criticised the alleged use of male police personnel against women protesters. “When a girl is beaten on the face and left bleeding, it shows how brutal the assault was,” he said. He also alleged that a female student lost consciousness after being hit on the head.
