A case has been registered against a professor at the National Institute of Technology-Calicut (NIT) for “expressing pride” in Nathuram Godse for assassinating Mahatma Gandhi and thus “saving India” on a Facebook comment.

The Kerala Police registered a case under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) Section 153 (wantonly giving provocation with the intent to cause riot) after multiple complaints were lodged against professor A Shaija in several police stations by various student bodies.

Shaija is a senior faculty member of the department of mechanical engineering at NIT-Calicut. On January 30, she wrote “proud of Godse for saving India” in the comment section of a Facebook post by a lawyer, who posted Godse’s photograph saying “Hindu Mahasabha activist Nathuram Vinayak Godse, a hero of many in India.”

The professor later deleted her comment following a controversy.

Kozhikode (Calicut) MP MK Raghavan condemned professor Shaija’s statement. “I am ashamed to hear an inappropriate comment against Mahatma Gandhi and praise of Godse’s deed by a person holding a responsible post in NIT, a premier institution falls under my constituency. Appropriate exemplary action should be taken by the authorities concerned,” he wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

The professor defended her comment by saying she never meant to appreciate the killing of Gandhiji. However, she talked about “revelations” in Gode’s book ‘Why I killed Gandhi’ which the common man does not know.

“My comment was not to appreciate the killing of Gandhiji. I never wanted to do so. I had read Godse’s book, Why I killed Gandhi. Godse was also a freedom fighter. There is a lot of information and revelations in his book, which the common man does not know. Godse has enlightened us in his book. Against this backdrop, I had commented on the advocate’s Facebook post. When I realised that people have started distorting my comment, I deleted it,” she told Indian Express.

The NIT-C, one of the premier engineering institutions in the country, has recently been under the grip of controversies. A section of students celebrated the Ram temple consecration in the past week by drawing a saffron-coloured map of India at the institute’s gate. In protest of the incident, students were embroiled in a scuffle.