Pinarayi orders CBI probe into Sidharth’s death after meeting his family

Kerala CM orders CBI probe into student's death amid political turmoil, opposition protests, and demands for justice.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on March 8 ordered a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) enquiry into the suspected death by suicide of J.S. Sidharth, a second-year student of the Kerala Veterinary and Animal Husbandry University at Pookode in Wayanad in mid-February.

The student’s death had rocked State politics with Kerala Governor Arif Mohammad Khan, the Congress and also the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alleging that the Student Federation of India (SFI) activists in the college had tortured, shamed and put Sidharth on public trial for some perceived campus dismeanour, and left him to starve in his room for days before fellow hostelers found the student dead in a shared shower room in the college’s boarding house.

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On Saturday, Sidharth’s father, Jayaprakash, met Mr. Vijayan at his office in the government secretariat. Mr. Jayaprakash later told reporters that the Chief Minister heard his misgivings about the ongoing State police probe and promised a CBI inquiry.

A State committee meeting of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) had reportedly weighed on Friday whether the controversy would have a snowball effect, negatively impacting the party’s Lok Sabha election campaign.

By consenting to the family’s demand for a CBI enquiry, the government hoped it could disarm critics, brush aside the cobwebs of conspiracy theories allegedly spread by vested political interests and also take the edge of opposition street protests.

The government also reportedly wanted to avoid a political loss of face, given Mr. Khan’s stated attempt to move the Kerala High Court for “a serving judicial officer” to probe the case on the premise that the State police investigation was untrustworthy.