SFI activists clash with police

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Tension prevailed in Thiruvananthapuram city on Tuesday after  a demonstration taken out by the SFI turned violent. The SFI activists, numbering about 200, and led by SFI state secretary P Biju and president K V Sumesh took out a protest march to the Secretariat demanding action against Thiruvananthapuram City Deputy Police Commissioner Rajpal Meena and other police officers who had battered the SFI activists while staging an agitation against the petrol price rise last Friday. Clashes erupted when the police blocked Tuesday’s march at the main gate of the Secretariat. The police used  water cannons to disperse the agitating students. SFI state committee member Shiju Khan was hospitalised after his inner ear was seriously damaged by the jet of water shot out from the water cannon at high speed. He was admitted Thiruvananthapuram Medical College Hospital following the incident. Preman, the president of SFI unit at Sanskrit College, was also admitted to Medical College Hospital after sustaining serious head injury in the lathicharge by the police. Besides Shiju Khan and Preman, about six more students suffered injuries in the clash. The students who moved away from the Secretariat, then started pelting stones at the police from inside the University College campus. The police used stun grenades at the students in a bid control the stone pelting. The two-hour-long clash finally ended following the intervention of SFI state committee leaders and senior police officers. Meanwhile, casualties were reported on the side of the police also. As many as six officers, including Pettah Sub-Inspector Shajimon, were injured in the stone pelting by the students. The Cantonment police have registered two separate cases against the SFI activists, including SFI state secretary P Biju, Shiju Khan and district committee secretary Ben Darwin in connection with the incident.