Kerala CM condemns attack on IIT-M scholar, requests Palaniswami to take actions

Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) [India], May 31 (ANI): Condemning the attack on an IIT-Madras PhD scholar by some students protesting against a "beef fest" held on the campus, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan requested his Tamil Nadu counterpart Edappadi K. Palaniswami to take necessary action. Taking to the social media, Vijayan, in his Facebook post said, "It was unfortunate that Suraj, a malayalee PHD student was assaulted in the IIT campus Chennai for participating in beef fest. Our constitution grants rights to have food of our own choice. Any act of intolerance is the violation of our constitutional rights." The Chief Minister also took to Twitter to condemn the attack. "Condemn the attack on Suraj, Malayali PhD scholar of #iitmadras for attending #beeffest. Will request CM of TN to take necessary actions," he twitted. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Condemn the attack on Suraj, Malayali PhD scholar of <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/iitmadras?src=hash">#iitmadras</a> for attending <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/beeffest?src=hash">#beeffest</a>. Will request CM of TN to take necessary actions.</p>&mdash; CMO Kerala (@CMOKerala) <a href="https://twitter.com/CMOKerala/status/869592003717156864">May 30, 2017</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> The scholar was thrashed by a group of students on Tuesday, reportedly because he had led Sunday's "beef fest" at the IIT-Madras (Indian Institute of Technology) campus against the Centre's cattle trade rules last week. At the fest, around 80 students reportedly discussed the Central government's recent ban on sale of cattle for slaughter at cattle markets and ate beef as a mark of protest. Slaughter of cow and calf is banned in Tamil Nadu but there is no bar of slaughter of buffaloes, ox or bull. The incident took place at the hostel mess around lunch when Sooraj R was asked by another student why got involved with the "beef fest". Around the same time, five-six other people surrounded Sooraj and started beating him up. Sooraj's received injuries in his right eye and was taken to hospital by his friends. Later, a group of students protested outside the institute campus against the violence. (ANI)