"Most Self-Financing Institutes Are Turning Into Concentration Camps": Jishnu Pranoy's Mother Demands CBI Probe [Read Application]

Almost nine months after Jishnu Pranoy, a first-year engineering student at Nehru College in Thrissur District, was found dead in his college under mysterious circumstances, his mother Mahija has approached the Apex Court demanding an investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

In an Intervention Application filed through Advocate Jaimon Andrews, Ms. Mahija claims to have " absolutely lost trust in the way the investigation has been carried out by the state police".

She questions the sincerity of the Police in conducting the probe and contends, "Even though there have been several openings to doubt the involvement of the respondent and the rest of the management in tarnishing the evidence and covering up the issue, the Police has never been able to go into the crux of the issue and prove the establish the material and direct involvement of the management in the death of Jishnu Pranoy."

Ms. Mahija goes on to point out several discrepancies and shortcomings in the investigation conducted by the Police so far. She further expresses disappointment with the fact that the Police has not explored the possibility of it being a murder rather than a suicide, relying on news reports which have claimed that bloodstains were found in the 'torture room' where Jishnu was allegedly tortured right before the incident.

"It is further submitted that there are several issues that have been give amiss by the Investigating Team of the Kerala Police... In such a scenario, there is high possibility that Jishnu was murdered in the Torture Room and subsequently hanged to mislead the investigation," she, thereafter, submits.

Claiming it to be an issue larger than it appears on the face of it, Ms. Mahija then contends that "most of the self-financing institutes are turning into concentration camps with the management exceeding all the limits by physically torturing and assaulting the students".

Warning against a repeat of such incident, she further submits, "It is a fact that there are Torture rooms in the colleges in order to silence the students who raise their voices for their most genuine demands... As such the applicant being a law abiding citizen would like to submit before this Hon’ble Court that if persons like the Respondent, who is instigating, instructing and even participating directly and indirectly in such kind of inhuman activities is allowed to escape from the clutches of law, ‘Jishnu Pranoys’ will be repeated, which is a dangerous situation."

Thereafter, demanding a CBI investigation into the incident, Ms. Mahija submits, "That the Applicant has enough reasons to believe that the investigation is not moving in the right direction and there is also serious concern as to whether evidences will be tampered and witnesses influenced if the current investigation team is continuing. The officers in the current investigation team are going in snail’s pace with the investigation and nothing material has been found out by them in the past 10 months...

...The college authorities are all powerful when it comes to granting internal marks and laboratory marks to the students.  Under the circumstances the applicant seeks leave of this Hon’ble Court to intervene in the instant Special Leave Petition and seeks to hand over the investigation into the death of Jishnu Pranoy to the Central Bureau of Investigation in the interests of justice."