He is a criminal: Kerala Governor alleges Kannur varsity vice-chancellor planned attack on him

Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan on Sunday accused Kannur University's Vice- Chancellor (VC) of planning an attack on him and called the latter a criminal.

Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan on Sunday accused Kannur University's Vice-Chancellor (VC) of planning an attack on him and called him a criminal.

The Governor accused Vice-Chancellor Gopinath Raveendran of being part of the alleged conspiracy to attack the former when he was invited to the varsity amidst the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) agitations in the country.

"Kannur VC has crossed all limits of decency. He headed a conspiracy to get me physically attacked when I visited Kannur University. I got to know later from higher authority sources that this conspiracy was planned in Delhi. He is not behaving like a VC but a party cadre,” the governor said.

"He is a criminal. He is sitting as VC because of political reasons. I was invited there by the VC. What was his duty when I was attacked? Was he not supposed to report it to the police? He did not do so," Khan said.

Meanwhile, the university syndicate on Thursday decided to move the Kerala High Court against the governor's decision to stay the appointment of Priya Varghese, wife of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan's private secretary, KK Ragesh.

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She was to be appointed a professor of the Malayalam Department at the varsity. The Kerala Governor exercised his power as Chancellor of Universities to stay the appointment.