Godse comment: NIT-Calicut professor fails to turn up for detailed interrogation

A. Shaija, Professor at the National Institute of Technology-Calicut (NIT-C), failed to turn up at the Kunnamangalam police station on February 13 (Tuesday) after she was summoned for a detailed interrogation in connection with a case pertaining to her social media comment allegedly glorifying Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin Nathuram Godse. Police sources said she has sought leave for five days on medical grounds.

A. Shaija, Professor at the National Institute of Technology-Calicut (NIT-C), failed to turn up at the Kunnamangalam police station on February 13 (Tuesday) after she was summoned for a detailed interrogation in connection with a case pertaining to her social media comment allegedly glorifying Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin Nathuram Godse. Police sources said she has sought leave for five days on medical grounds.

The summons was served on February 11 after a preliminary interrogation by the Kunnamangalam police and a day after the NIT-C constituted a committee to investigate Prof. Shaija’s controversial comment on a Facebook post in which she allegedly thanked Godse for “saving India” from Gandhi.

The Facebook post was made by a lawyer, Krishnaraj, with a photograph of Godse and the caption ‘Hindu Mahasabha Activist Nathuram Vinayak Godse, a hero of many in India’. Prof. Shaija had deleted her comment after it had kicked up a controversy.

The NIT-C issued a clarification that the institution did not endorse or support any comments that go against the principles and values upheld by Mahatma Gandhi. A statement from the NIT-C said the committee will investigate various aspects of the incident and prepare a comprehensive report, and appropriate action will be taken based on the findings.

Meanwhile, multiple complaints were lodged against Prof. Shaija with several police stations by student organisations such as the Students’ Federation of India, the Kerala Students Union, and the Muslim Students Federation following which an FIR was registered against her invoking Section 153 (wantonly giving provocation with the intend to cause riot) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Student organisations, including the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and the SFI, had taken out marches in protest to the NIT-C campus at Chathamangalam demanding action against Prof. Shaija.