K.K. Saju, Vice Chancellor of Kannur University, has ordered an internal enquiry into the circumstances leading to the inclusion of Prabeer Purkayastha, a controversial editor of the NewsClick portal, for the University Literature Festival organized by the university’s students’ union held on December 11-13.
Purkayastha is the editor-in-chief and co-founder of the NewsClick portal, that is facing serious allegations concerning national interests. In May, the Delhi Police arrested him on multiple charges, including accepting money from China to create paid news against government policies and development plans. It was alleged that a special team worked for Chinese telecom companies during their legal proceedings in the country and received assistance from these companies, among other accusations.
Purkayastha was invited to the University Literature Festival despite facing all of the aforementioned allegations. The VC had refrained from attending the inaugural function due to the inclusion of Purkayastha in a program scheduled to be addressed by him. Notably, Purkayastha was included in the program at the last moment.
The three-day Literature Festival was organized on campus by the Kannur University Students’ Union. However, Purkayastha’s inclusion in the program was not disclosed during the initial stages. There was no prior notification of his presence in the inaugural program, which was to be attended by the Vice Chancellor.
The Vice Chancellor has sought an explanation from the Students’ Union regarding the inclusion of Purkayastha in the program. Following this, the Vice Chancellor issued an order for an internal enquiry. Kannur University Students Union is manned by Students’ Federations of India (SFI)
