KANNUR, 6 AUG

A tense atmosphere prevailed at Kannur University during the union elections here on Wednesday following allegations that an SFI candidate snatched away the bag, containing the voter certificate, of an MSF UUC member, leading to clashes between the two student groups.

As the police restrained the woman SFI candidate, the members of her organisation intervened in large numbers and clashed with the officers, finally freeing her from them.

Visuals on TV channels showed the woman running away with other members of the Students Federation of India (SFI) -- a student body of the CPI(M) -- after being freed from the police.

One police officer was injured in the clash with the SFI activists.

SFI State Secretary PS Sanjeev told reporters that the SFI candidate was restrained by the police without any reason, as there was no evidence that she snatched the bag of a University Union Council (UUC) member of the Muslim Students Federation (MSF) -- a wing of the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML).

He alleged that the woman was restrained by police merely based on accusations by the MSF.

Subsequently, the situation worsened as members of the SFI and the United Democratic Students' Front (UDSF) -- an alliance of the Kerala Students Union (KSU) and MSF -- violently clashed with each other, causing injuries to several members of each group.

As the two groups fought each other in front of the police, the officers resorted to a lathi charge to break them up.

The police were present at the campus following a Kerala High Court order asking the Vice Chancellor to seek police assistance, if necessary, to conduct the university union elections.

The High Court had also ordered that the entire election process be videotaped and preserved.

The order had come on a plea by an MSF candidate who had alleged that candidates of her student organisation were threatened and prevented from filing their nomination papers by the SFI.