The torture to death case of JS Sidharthan, a second year student inside the Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University’s men’s hostel has become a center point of news in Kerala.
The twenty one year-old student was subjected to days long mob torture, detention and starvation before his death. Sidharthan was found hanging in the toilet on 18 February. The student’s death was reported as an unnatural one initially and with the family’s complaint filed in the subsequent days, students in the men’s hostel reported an incident of ragging to the National Anti Ragging cell. On 22 February, 12 students were suspended in relation to the case.
Ongoing discussions in television channels look at the nature of the crime and whether the identity of the student has contributed to the crime and seek accountability from the ruling CPI(M)’s student wing, Students Federation of India, that is associated with the crime. Two of the accused are top post holders in the SFI’s college unit.
Sidharthan’s family in their complaint filed at Vythiri police station had mentioned that they doubt the death is not by suicide but it was a murder. Questions around the death is everywhere in terms of whether it was a suicide resulted by three days long torture or whether the accused had staged a suicide.
“Now we know that this was an existing practice in the college, the SFI will not let anyone be active. He wasn’t just doing his studies, he was actively participating in leadership of many programs. He loved photography,” in a very tired voice, Sidharthan’s father Jayaprakash voiced his worry about the Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University campus where his son was trialed and tortured in public, on the accusation related to an incident during Valentine’s Day celebration on 14 February in the campus.
On 15 February, Sidharthan was planning to return to home, informing the family before he set off to Thiruvananthapuram, but was called back to the campus during the journey. In the coming days, Sheeba, Sidharthan’s worried mother had tried contacting their son only to listen to minimal responses from him, and this remained a big hint to the family later. Sidharthan’s uncle Shibu had said that even the friends of Sidharthan were reluctant to talk when his mother contacted them. “He wasn’t talking much,” Shibu said.
“We came to know that Sidharthan was removed from a college WhatsApp group in the light of prejudice. Other students were barred from talking to the relatives of Sidharthan when we went to the campus. The college administration hid the incident without even letting his family know about the death. The roommates too didn’t inform the family about the crime, this too resulted in his torturous death. A young doctor who could be a role model for his natives and the family’s hope is destroyed, we seek justice for Sidharthan through an effective investigation against everyone involved in this,” reads a complaint by Sidharthan’s family given to the ADGP of law and order, Kerala.
On 22 February, breaking the stoic silence that had invaded the student community, a student came forward to talk to this reporter about the tradition of violence on campus, requesting that her identity be protected.
She said that she had faced a defamation case for writing about a moralistic oversight by the hostel warden in social media and she explained how the warden used her personal friendship with the police to summon the student and her friend to the police station. She had also stated that she and few of her friends were threatened and mansplained for joining non-SFI student organizations for campaigning. Any political movement rising up inside other than Students Federation of India is nabbed from the beginning. Internal complaint committees fail to consider and solve issues raised by students, especially female students and ragging complaints never been taken seriously, she detailed her experience. She stressed on the importance of democratizing campus politics. In short, it took nearly one week for the TV news channels to pick up the news about Sidharthan’s death.
On 29 February, the investigation officer submitted the remand report in the case which highlighted the family’s allegation about the possibility of murder.
“Sidharthan’s family has alleged that the he will not commit suicide and the injuries found in Sidharthan’s body suggests so through the visual media and complaints filed to the authorities. A deeper investigation must be held on this matter to ascertain a conclusion with clarity,” the remand report of the accused in the case states.
Meanwhile the district units of CPI(M) and SFI repeatedly come in defense of their integrity while they distance themselves from the accused.
Sidharthan was a budding wildlife photographer
Recollecting conversations with his son, Jayaprakash tells the anchor in a Media One TV discussion that Sidharthan was happy that he was getting to use a camera in the college. Sidharthan was fond of photographing the wildlife.
Shibu too talks about Sidharthan’s passion for wildlife photography. Shibu said that Sidharthan had participated in a frog survey. Sidharthan, being very active in the Kerala agricultural university in Mannuthy, and being an active participant of surveys and researches also might have contributed to the animosity of other students, Shibu observes.
“Sidharthan served as the class representative in the first year, and he was asked to continue in the position. The SFI demanded him to join the organization if he wanted to be the class representative for a second term, but he declined. Later, he was surprised to know that his two roommates had joined the SFI unit,” his father said.
Sidharthan’s father added that his son, being a member of the OEC community, was taunted by fellow students for being the beneficiary of reservation. The student from the campus too reiterated that an anti-reservation sentiment was explicit in the campus.
OEC (Other Eligible Communities) are those communities recommended to include in the state Scheduled Caste list and Scheduled Tribes. Hence the OEC’s are grouped in to ,OEC (SC) and OEC (ST). As per the G.O.(Ms) 10/2014/BCDD dated 23.05.2014, 30 communities from state OBC list are selected for OEC educational assistance subjected to a maximum of Rs. 6 Lakh annual income.
Dr Shirley Vasu, a retired professor of forensic medicine who worked at various government medical colleges and is a postmortem examination expert, said that the case needs to be attended in a comprehensive manner, addressing this death as an institutional problem.
Analyzing the post mortem report of Sidharthan, she said that there is a possibility that the student might have undergone white torture methods of prolonged torture that leads to ending life.
“This is a worse human rights violation than a murder” she said.
“Instead of stating that he was ‘assaulted’ in the post mortem report it should have been written that he was ‘tortured’. The state human rights commission or the youths commission or the chief minister haven’t responded yet,” she pointed out.
“In cases of students’ suicides, we see protests prior to the post mortem report comes up. In this case it was different. We don’t usually see the parents of the students coming up in the beginning, the institutional authorities like the principal or the warden would come in first. But in this case we didn’t see anyone speaking up,” Dr Shirley Vasu pointed out about the institutional silence.
Dr Shirley stressed that the remaining students who witnessed this crime too must be given psychological assistance and the college must be kept shut for a while until concerns are addressed. She insisted that investigations also be done into the postings of the teachers of the institution and their political lenience.
“The governor can call for a judicial enquiry but the media can press for a sociological enquiry. When we are stretched to the far end of our tensile strength, ‘ending the torture’ can occur. How can that be termed as suicide?” Dr Shirley asks.
“That is ending torture by oneself. In dowry, torture cases I’ve seen women hanged to death using even a small piece of cloth. A custodial torture victim died by suicide inside Pathanamthitta police station using the elastic band from an underwear. Everyone asked is that even possible, but that too is enough. It is all about escaping from the horror being inflicted on oneself. To push a person to that extreme is the crime in this case”, she explained the complexity of the crime.
“But we are not seeing the campuses protesting against this death, or if the media is not showing us? Sidharthan’s rectus muscles, the muscle that helps us even to sit straight, was destroyed by kicking on them. The body resisted an attack on its internal organ. Also, we can’t rule out the possibility that his body was hung inside the toilet by somebody else, if the person is unconscious, if he was hung by someone else to death or if he was hung himself, would show the similar results. Other circumstances inside the toilet must be examined. The fact that there is no magisterial enquiry being declared is strange. There must be a magisterial enquiry done before handing this case to CBI,” she pointed out.
