[1][2] It was featured in the news in January 2017, following the suicide of a student because he was allegedly harassed by the college authorities for purported malpractices during an examination.
[3] This incident has sparked a chain reaction in Kerala where hundreds of students have now come out to share the horrific tales of torture and harassment in the state’s self-financed colleges.
There are penalties for growing beards, failure to wear an ID tag, being late, cutting a cake for celebrations etc.
[7] An 18-year old computer science student named Jishnu Pranoy was found hanging in his hostel bathroom on 6, January 2017 due to harassment by the college management allegedly after he was caught cheating in university semester exam.
[22][23] A Facebook campaign page was also started (called Justice for Jishnu ) where students came together to share several posts about alleged that emotional harassment by the college authorities was an everyday affair.
[24] The mystery of Jishnu's unnatural death deepened when the college's statement of 'caught copying' was proved false in all the investigations.
[29] Jishnu's postmortem report shows that there were multiple injuries on his nose, face, lips and neck hinting to physical torture.
[23] When the protest turned violent, the college management suspended Vice-principal Dr N K Sakthivel, teacher Praveen C P and PRO Sanjith Viswanathan.
No evidence was found against P. Krishnadas, Chairman of Nehru Group of Institutions, who was cleared of all earlier accusations by the State Crime Branch.
[40] Those who challenge the stringent rules are summoned to this room where they are threatened and beaten up, alumnus and students of the college claimed.
[15] Many other students also reported several other controversial incidents, including the regular appearance of men with masks stripping to full nudity behind the woman's hostel.
[44][45] While the college was caught up in the Jishnu's death case, another student named Shaheer came out stating that the Chairman of the institute, Mr. Krishnadas, punched, thrashed and threatened him.
He had written complaints to chief minister and calicut university in October 2016 stating the illegal activities happening in the college.
He also had written letter to income tax department stating the illegal fine collections happening in the college.
[51] According to the complaint filed by Shaheer, Krishnadas had beaten him up for almost eight hours and threatened to trap him in a fake ragging case if he revealed the torture to anyone.
The magistrate upheld the argument of the prosecutor T R Manoj Kumar that granting bail to them will affect the investigation of the case as they were influential people and will be able to influence the witnesses.
[53] Krishnadas was again arrested on 4 April for questioning in the Jishnu Pranoy death case, but was left off in the evening as he had anticipatory bail.
[54] Following a comprehensive CBI investigation, P Krishnadas, Chairman of Nehru Group of Institutions, was found to be clear of the accusations, and was acquitted from the case.
[56] It lists P Krishna Das, chairman and managing trustee of the Nehru College of Educational and Charitable Trust as the first accused.
[57][58] The vice principal N.K Sakthivel, assistant professor C.P Praveen, P.R.O Sanjith Viswanathan, and college staff examination cell member Dipin, are the other four accused.
[60] The chairman Krishnadas then conspired with the other accused to implicate Jishnu in a copying case and had fabricated evidence to support the charges.
[66][67] Police report further states that the accused chairman Krishna das and P.R.O Sanjith then destroyed evidence by damaging the hard disk which stored the footage of CCTV cameras in the college.