The 1972-76 batch was fated to be etched in the annals of history of the college for a strange reason. P Rajan,

a civil engineering student was taken into custody during the emergency days of 1975, brutally tortured and killed in police custody. The “Rajan Case” became a milestone in the history of Kerala and the Chief Minister was forced to resign.

These are my personal memories of the tumultuous days. What happened in the Kakkayam camp may perhaps be never known since most of the personalities involved have chosen to remain silent.

Rajan and I were part of the college team which participated in the University Youth festival held at Farook College, Calicut. The competitions went late into the night and since where was no transport available some friends from the city colleges also entered the college bus. The driver took an adamant stand the only our students would be allowed to travel. There was an ugly standoff and it was in the wee hours of the morning next day that we finally reached the campus.

Some of us got down at the main gate to  meet Prof. Abdul Gaffar, who was in charge of  the college bus, to make a formal complaint. By the time we reached the D and E hostels,  there was an eerie silence and the whole place  was teeming with police. I learnt that Rajan and a few others have been taken into custody and the police were looking for C., a third year student. (I am deliberately avoiding naming the students respecting their privacy. None of them have chosen to talk about the unhappy incidents since. All of them have treated it as a closed chapter and moved on with their lives.) I went to the room of C, which was a corner room in the second floor of the E hostel. An inspector who identified himself as Sreedharan was waiting there. He was rather friendly and we got talking about why the police had come to the campus. He told us that some of the students were involved in the police station attack at Kayanna in Waynad district. Meanwhile C had come to the room but left seeing the presence of strangers in his room. We casually continued our conversation and the inspector had no clue it was C who had come and left. However he was picked up later by the police.

The police team left in the morning and only then we learnt the identities of those who were picked up. Rajan had been picked up from the lodge near E hostel. (40 years later, one of our classmates J.. revealed that it was he who accompanied the police and identified Rajan for them). The morning saw a strange sight. Stuffed under the carpets in the corridors of the C and E hostel were a large cache of communist and naxalite literature. It dawned on me for the first time that some of us were involved.

R Karmachandran was the closest friend of Rajan from their school days in Ernakulam. Though I can’t remember the exact date, I remember accompanying Karman to meet Prof. Eachara Varier at the Kerala Bhavan Lodge, Palayam, Calicut. Principal Bahaudeen and Prof. Gafar went to the Kakkayam police camp to make enquiries with the DIG, Jayaram Padikkal. On return, he called a meeting of the student representatives. I was present, and Bahaudeen sir informed us of the grave situation. He had been threatened that the college and hostels will be shut down forcibly and requested the students not to make any public protests and to cooperate with the authorities fully. We agreed, since no one could even imagine our whole future going up inflames.

Shutters were erected on all entrances to the hostels, watchmen appointed and movement of the students were severely restricted. A register was kept where we had to sign every time we went in or out. How we overcame this hurdle is another rather funny story.

One day my friend Dr K C Joseph (later MLA), who was a house surgeon in the Calicut Medical College, informed me that some students were admitted by the police in the hospital. I immediately went to the hospital and found the whole medical college was sealed by the police. However we managed to enter through a door in the back exclusively meant for the doctors. Since the whole hospital building is interconnected I could reach the ward. I discovered that the victims were from the Angadipuram incident where an activist Balakrishnan, took a DySP along with him to the grave by lighting up a petrol tin kept in the jeep.

However I was fortunate to meet a friend S., who was a Circle Inspector of Police. He informed that one of our students has died in the police camp at Kakkayam, but he was not sure about the identity of the victim.

The emergency was still on when and on completion of the course we left the campus. There was no fun and frolic and the mood in the campus was solemn. I remember walking alongside the railway line at Ernakulam South, together with Karmachandran to visit the family of P Rajan. The hapless mother had lost her mind, and was insistent that I was her son Rajan. The two sisters were silent and sad. We sat there silently for some time and left.

I had joined the architect firm Cyriac Vellapally, Kottayam immediately after leaving college. The emergency was lifted in 1977 and new governments were in place at the Centre and the State. K Karunakaran, who was home minister, had become the chief minister of Kerala. Soon I got a letter from Advocate Manjeri Sunderraj, my friend from the college days. A movement was being started to force the government to reveal the truth about P Rajan and I was asked to help organise the protests.

I soon reached Calicut. Since my uncle was living on Bank Road, I was assured free food and lodging. In college, I stayed with Hashim, my junior and friend from Kanjirapally. We went around meeting the political leaders in the opposition. I remember meeting M Kamalam (later minister) and P k Sankarankutty (later MLA) of the Manata Party. I also met M K Kelu, District Secretary of the CPM, along with my classmate N R Asok Kumar(PME), who all assured all support. What I remember is the simple upstairs room in the lodge where Kelu ettan lived. We also met Adv. Jayakumar who was assisting the legendary lawyer S Eswara Iyer in the Rajan case. It was decided that since our batch had dispersed and unlikely to come back to be witnesses, the help of the junior batches should be obtained to help prosecute the case.

It was decided to organise a protest rally of the all the students of professional colleges in Calicut. The rally was massive and the whole city took note. Majority of the students from REC, Medical College and Law College participated. Unfortunately the meeting turned out to be the end of my involvement in the Rajan case. My uncle, who happened to pass by, saw me addressing the huge gathering at Muthalakkulam ground, and informed home. My father had assumed that I was in Calicut in search of a better job. I was asked to return home immediately.

I was promptly despatched to Ernakulam, to meet Alexander Vellapally, the Managing Director of Asian Techs, a recently formed construction company. I was given an appointment on the spot since most of the directors were relatives or family friends. On purpose or not, I was soon sent away, to the newly started Kudremukh Iron Ore Project, in the remote Agumbe forests of Karnataka.

The entire Rajan saga has been well documented to be reiterated. Several books have been written on the episode. The award winning film “Piravi” by Shaji N Karun is loosely based on the Rajan story. The memoirs of Eachara Varier offer a vivid account of the turbulent days.

Was Rajan a naxalite?. K Venu, the CPI­ ML leader who organised the police station attack insists in his memoirs, that Rajan was a member, but he didn’t participate in the attack. In all probability, Rajan,a good singer, who in my knowledge was apolitical and interested only in music, must have been influenced by his senior in school and college, Murali Kannampilli. Murali had gone underground immediately after the declaration of the Emergency and today is the tallest leader and intellectual of the CPI-ML- now CPI (Maoist) Party, in the country.

Our juniors had kept alive the memory of Rajan by naming the College Arts festival, RAGAM. In later years, a Director of NIT Calicut had made an unsuccessful attempt to change the name. His argument was that the whole unhappy incident had brought a bad name for the institution and hence need to be forgotten forever. Fortunately, the students, who were born many years after the death of Rajan, foiled the attempt.

Prof. Eachara Varier wanted to build a memorial for his son with the compensation ordered by the court. It was decided to construct a P Rajan memorial ward in the Ernakulam General Hospital. Funds were insufficient and it was the untiring efforts of Karmachandran, Rajan’s closes friend from childhood, which saw the fruition of the dream of Eachara Varier, in his lifetime. In those days when there was no internet, e-mail or Whatsapp, it was a superhuman efforts and it was the wholehearted support of our NRI alumni that helped in raising the required funds. Chief Minister Karunakaran later made an attempt to demolish the memorial with the help of the District Collector, but it was foiled by the public who raised a hue and cry.

The 72-76 batch, has made a small attempt to cherish the memory of our friend and classmate, by making a financial contribution to the College. Cash awards are being given every year, to the winners of the P Rajan memorial music competitions of RAGAM, in various categories.