Kerala Governor accuses police of double standard; HC stays his nominations to university

Thiruvananthapuram: With Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan strongly criticising the police action of invoking milder charges against CPM's students wing activist who protested against him on Monday, the police decided to involve stringent charges.

The Governor said on Tuesday morning that even as attempted murder charges were invoked against the Congress activists who threw shoes at the Chief Minister's vehicle, only milder sections were invoked against Students' Federation of India (SFI) activists who hit his vehicle on Tuesday. He also said that section 124 of IPC for protest against the President or governors should be invoked and action should be taken for causing damage to his car. He also reiterated that the Chief Minister was hatching a conspiracy to attack him.

Later, the police were learnt to have invoked IPC 124 against seven SFI activists who staged the protest against the Governor.

While the SFI leadership said that they would continue the protest against the Governor and would not allow him to enter any universities in the state, the Governor said that whenever his vehicle is blocked by agitators he would step out of it and ask the agitators to attack him instead of his vehicle.

Meanwhile, the Governor suffered a setback as the Kerala High Court stayed the recent nomination of four members to the Kerala University senate by the Governor in his capacity as chancellor. The stay was issued considering petitions questioning the eligibility of the nominated students.

The SFI had launched stir against the governor accusing him of nominating BJP-RSS loyalists to universities.