Thiruvananthapuram: : In a new turn in the case relating to the death of an Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) of police during a campus violence in Kottayam district last year, three police personnel, including a Deputy SP, were on Monday suspended for contradicting the FIR in the case.

Deputy Superintendent P B Vijayan and Mathew Thomas and K A Anthrayas, both ASI, were suspended by the state police chief for giving a statement in the court contrary to the FIR that ASI Elias was beaten on the head by a wooden plank by ABVP activists on the campus of the NSS Hindu College at Changanassery on October 26 last year.

The DySP was also charged with supervisory lapse in the investigation, official sources said. Four ABVP workers were arrested following the death of Elias, who was on the campus trying to contain a clash between ABVP and SFI workers. The issue had triggered a controversy following allegations that the arrested activists were brutally tortured by the police.

The BJP had demanded a CBI probe into the incident alleging that its student wing activists were falsely implicated in the case.