Kochi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Sunday took over the probe into the death of second-year undergraduate student JS Siddharth (20) who was allegedly brutally tortured and starved for days at the College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences in Pookode in Keral’s Wayanad district, leading to his death, people aware of the development said.

A four-member CBI team arrived in Kannur from Delhi on Saturday and from there, they travelled to Wayanad and held discussions with the officers of the state police, including district superintendent of police T Narayanan and Kalpetta deputy superintendent of police TN Sajeev, who was the lead investigator in the case, said the people mentioned above.

All relevant documents pertaining to the case were reportedly handed over to the central agency, they said.

According to the people, the investigating agency is currently camping at a guest house in Vythiri and will visit the college premises in the next few days. They would also demand the custody of the accused arrested by the state police in the case so far.

At least 18 people, including members of the college Union and local Students Federation of India (SFI) leaders, have been arrested and booked in connection with the student’s death.

The central agency, said people, will record the testimony of T Jayaprakash, the father of the victim, on Tuesday (March 9) in Wayanad.

The CBI’s takeover of the probe into the case comes two days after the Centre issued the notification for the same on the directions of the Kerala high court.

Jayaprakash had approached the Kerala high court last week stating that there was a delay in the central agency probe despite case files being handed over to them by the state government on March 23. The high court also slammed the state government for delaying the transfer of the case files even though it had notified its decision to hand over the probe to the CBI on March 9.

The Kerala high court on Friday directed the Centre to promptly issue a notification to the CBI to take charge of the investigation into the death of the veterinary student.

Siddharth, a native of Nedumangad in Thiruvananthapuram district, was found dead in the college hostel washroom on February 18.

Though initially deemed a suicide without any external motives at play, the family of the victim raised an alarm after noticing several injuries on his body pointing to severe assault.

Later, an interim report of the anti-ragging squad, based on testimonies from several students, said that the undergraduate student was forced to strip down to his underwear and was paraded and assaulted by several students in the open area of the hostel in the presence of many.