SFI protest: Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan accuses police of inaction

He said that only eight people were arrested, while he was attacked three times when he went to address an event on the release of a book on Sree Narayana Guru at the university. He said that the action was taken in the third instance, when he came out of his vehicle to confront SFI activists.

"On that day, thrice I was attacked. Then some people were arrested. What about the first two places where they hit my car? Has anybody been arrested? And the third place where they were arrested, because I got out of the car. I saw that these people were brought in police jeeps and they were pushed back by the police chief. There were much more than eight people. Others were allowed to flee, but only eight people were taken into custody... They want me to do something to report this... They are asking for something drastic, and I'm not going to oblige them." Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan added.

Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan said, "I had gone there to address a meeting that was postponed three months back, it was about the release of a book, Sree Narayana Guru."

This comes amid unrest between Pinarayi Vijayan's government and Kerala Governor Arif Mohammad Khan, the Student Federation of India (SFI), a student wing of the ruling CPI(M), has been staging protests.

The SFI activists' protests came as they were alleging that the governor has been pushing the "BJP-RSS nominees" to the senate of various universities in Kerala using his authority as the chancellor of universities in the state.

He also took a serious note of the action of the State Police and accused them of working on CM's directions as defamatory posters against him were put on the campus of Calicut University, which he believes is the beginning of the collapse of the constitutional machinery in the state.

The black banners and posters have been placed inside the campus, just outside the University Guest House, where the Governor is staying, Kerala Raj Bhavan released the statement.

Earlier, SFI (Students Federation of India), the student wing of the ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist), staged a black-flag protest march to Calicut University, ahead of the Governor's arrival on campus.

Black banners and posters were put up outside Calicut University Guest House where the Governor was staying.

The protesters were, however, removed from the spot by the police on the instruction of the Governor's office.

The Governor earlier claimed that the police were prevented from acting against 'criminals'. He also accused CM Vijayan of hatching a conspiracy to harm him. (ANI)