Campus violence victim ensures case goes to trial

KOCHI: Though  most cases of campus violence are either settled by the parties concerned or withdrawn by the successive governments, Noble Kumar is not ready to give up his fight against the people who brutally assaulted him while he was a student at the Government Law College in Kochi in 2016. After the prosecution moved a petition in court seeking to withdraw the case in which five SFI workers were accused, Kumar moved a counterpetition and won a favourable verdict from the court, which then directed all of the accused to appear for trial.

“I was attacked by SFI men because I was a KSU worker in college. I decided to move against the petition to withdraw the case because it will set a bad precedent,” said Kumar. It was on June 6, 2016, that Noble Kumar was brutally attacked by a group of five people on the campus premises. A case was registered with the Central Police Station in the city against the accused, identified as Vyshak, Arshom P M, Dheeraj, Nikhil, and Vivek, who were all students of the law college at the time as well.

“I came to know about the prosecution’s decision to try to withdraw the case when the assistant public prosecutor moved a petition to this effect in Judicial First Class Magistrate-II court, after the state government expressed its opinion that it had no objection,” Kumar said.

In the judgement, magistrate M K Balram observed that the crime case was not a suo motu case by the police. “There is a de facto complainant in this case, who allege that he is a victim. He has come before the court through a counsel  and has filed an objection to the petition. I am of the view that, for the grounds mentioned in the petition, permission cannot be granted under Section 321 of CrPC to withdraw the case,” the judge stated.