The Judicial First Class Magistrate Court, Hosdurg just granted bail to Gangothi Nagaraju, a Dalit PhD Scholar in the Central University of Kerala (CUK) who was arrested five days ago for smashing the window pane of afire extinguisher of the hostel. A member of the Ambedkar Students' Association (ASA), Nagaraju was charged under the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, 1984.

A student of linguistics who hails from Telangana, Nagaraju's was often targeted by the university authorities, according to his classmates and friends. "This was a mere damage of Rs 150, which could have been easily settled inside the hostel itself. The issue wouldn't have been this big if Nagaraju was an upper caste Malayali," says Thufail Koran, another PhD scholar in the university.

According to a statement released by ASA, the police arrested Nagaraju from CUKerala campus on Thursday evening around 6 PM following a complaint from the university administration on charges that he destroyed a glass pane inside the university hostel on July 8. "Almost a month after the incident, police arrested Nagaraju and slapped non-bailable cases upon him and took him into custody. The university administration has escalated the situation without any kind of natural justice," the statement read. The scholar was also expelled from the university hostel following the incident.