Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 26: A police officer died trying to quell clashes between activists of rival student unions today, the first death of a man in uniform on Kerala’s campuses.

Assistant sub-inspector E.M. Elias, 47, received fatal blows on his head when activists of the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) and the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) attacked each other at Nair Service Society College in Changanacherry near Kottayam.

The SFI and the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) alleged that ABVP and RSS activists attacked the inspector with sticks. ABVP countered the charge and claimed that the local superintendent of police had implicated its activists. It demanded a probe by a central agency.

“This is the first time in the state’s history that a police officer has been killed on the campus and this is not good,” education minister M. A. Baby said. The police raided BJP offices and rounded up 12 RSS-ABVP activists, amid complaints that they were treating SFI activists with kid gloves.

The clash followed a dispute over results of the recent elections at the college, under Mahatma Gandhi University. The SFI had won a majority in most colleges. The NSS campus had seen skirmishes between the two unions over the past week.

Chief minister V.S. Achuthanandan, home minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan and state police chief Ramon Srivastava blamed the ABVP for the death. The government announced Rs 6 lakh for Elias’s family.

State BJP chief P. K. Krishnadas condemned the incident but accused the CPM of “implicating” its activists and that of the ABVP. Opposition leader Oommen Chandy criticised the arrests after the death as “unilateral”, saying the police apprehended only one section of the students.

Principal C. Chandran blamed political parties who sent their activists to the campus. The college has been closed indefinitely.

Kerala High Court had imposed curbs on campus politics in a landmark 2003 judgment that empowered college authorities to decide the mode of elections. Student unions appealed the verdict in the Supreme Court, which appointed a panel headed by former election commissioner J.B. Lyngdoh to suggest ways to clean up campus polls.

In August last year, a professor was killed in an Ujjain college for cancelling student elections over rigging complaints. H.S. Sabharwal’s death had also triggered allegations of the ABVP’s involvement.