Kerala: Prime suspect of veterinary student’s death case arrested in Palakkad 

Today, Thursday, February 29, the Kerala police arrested a primary suspect in the case of the death of a student of Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University in the Palakkad district.

A senior Wayanad district police official stated that the accused would be appropriately detained after his statement was recorded.

On Wednesday, February 28, six of the case's 18 defendants were arrested. They weren't, however, one of the case's twelve main suspects.

Politics in the state have been rocked by the death of 20-year-old Siddharthan on February 18. The Congress and then the BJP have accused the ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist)'s student wing, the Students' Federation of India (SFI), of beating the youngster to death.

State Law Minister P Rajeev, meanwhile, declared today, February 29, that the government will prosecute the accused harshly regardless of the organisation to which they may belong.

What happened?
On February 18, Siddharthan, the victim, was discovered hanging in the lavatory of his dorm. Afterwards, his parents said that a few of his college friends had told them that several local SFI officials and activists had battered him to death.

The student's father said that the postmortem report showed bruises on his son's body that would have taken three days to heal and that his stomach was empty, suggesting that he had been severely beaten and starved.

Following the student's parents' claims, the Congress and then the BJP made their accusations against the SFI.

The police, who had initially filed a case of unnatural death, charged 12 students with a variety of offences under the IPC and the Kerala Prohibition of Ragging Act, including aiding suicide, wrongful restraint, and voluntarily causing harm by dangerous weapons or means based on the parents' claims.