Since past few days, protest has rocked IIT Madras, demanding justice for Fathima Latheef, a 19-year-old student who killed herself on campus last week. On Thursday, IIT-Madras campus saw massive protests by students.
According to India Today, Fathima Latheef's parents are going to meet Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami and senior members of the police department today urging them for a fair probe and to discuss the doubts behind their daughter's death.
What is the case?
Fathima Latheef, pursuing her first year undergraduation course in the humanities stream (five year integrated MA programme), committed suicide by hanging from a ceiling fan on November 9. The student hailed from Kollam in Kerala.
Preliminary police investigations suspected that the student, a native of Kerala, was depressed because of poor performance in the examinations. Police initially believed that her low marks were the reason behind taking the dire step.
According to India Today, three days after her suicide, Fathima's father Abdul Latheef, appealed Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to ensure a fair probe in the matter as his daughter in a text had reportedly accused one of her professors of harassing her.
The suicide:
According to Fathima’s family, she last spoke to her mother on November 8 when she told her that she would be switching off her phone to prepare for semester examinations. Fathima's phone continued to be switched off the next day as well and frantic attempts by her mother to contact her daughter's friends were also unanswered. The family received a call from the hostel warden who informed them of Fathima's death.
On reaching Chennai after getting the news of the suicide, Fathima's sister Aysha switched Fathima's phone on and found a message in it blaming one of her professor's to be the "cause of her death", reported India Today.
