Kerala University disqualifies 39 councillors amid impersonation row
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Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala University, which had ordered a probe into College Union elections conducted by the 183 of its affiliated colleges, on Saturday disqualified 39 councillors after a detailed verification.
The decision for a recheck was taken after an incident of an elected woman councillor being replaced by an SFI leader at the capital district Christian College, Kattakada surfaced.
After the detection of the fraud, a big furore broke out and the principal of the college and the student who managed to become the councillor on the sly were suspended and a case was registered by the Kerala Police.
College principal in-charge G.J. Shyju and Vishak A, a first-year student and Students Federation of India (SFI) leader, have been named the first and second accused respectively in the case which was registered on the basis of a complaint submitted by the University Registrar to the State Police Chief accusing them of various offences including impersonation, breach of trust and forgery.
The college had forwarded Vishak in place of another student Anagha A.S. who had been elected as University Union Councillor (UUC) and was supposed to contest in the university union elections.
The university sought legal proceedings a day after its Syndicate demanded stringent action against those responsible for the controversy.
The Vice-Chancellor ordered a scrutiny of all the elections conducted in 183 colleges affiliated with the university.
Of the 183 colleges, 147 of them have by now replied and it was found out that there have been violations of the norms as prescribed by the Lyngdoh Committee leading to the disqualification of 39 councillors.
As per the norms, any violation in the age, attendance and results of past examinations will lead to disqualification of the elected student.
Meanwhile, Kerala University has imposed a fine of Rs 1.55 lakh on the Christian College Kattakada as they had made all the arrangements for the election for the Kerala University Students Union but had to be cancelled after the fraud was detected.
The fine imposed was for the cost that the University had spent to conduct the election by printing ballots and other expenses incurred for the election.
Both the Congress and the BJP have slammed the ruling CPI(M) for allowing their student organisation SFI to engage in all undesirable activities.
With inputs from agencies
