The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed a final report closing the investigation into the death of 19-year-old Fathima Latheef at IIT-Madras hostel, concluding that it was a case of death by suicide due to homesickness and recording that the student had psychological issues, said sources. In its conclusions, the report matches with the one already submitted by the special investigation team headed by the then Additional Commissioner of Police, Central Crime Branch, C. Eswaramoorthy in 2019.
Fathima, 19, from Kollam, had joined IIT-M in July 2019 and was a first year student of M.A. Humanities. She was found dead in her Room No, 349 at Sarayu Hostel on the campus on November 9.
Initially the case was investigated by Kotturpuram police under Section 174 of the Criminal Procedure Code for unnatural death. After retrieving a suicide note from her phone, her father Latheef alleged that she had been facing harassment forcing her to take the extreme step. He met the Chief Ministers of Tamil Nadu and Kerala and demanded a thorough probe, besides raising serious allegations against a professor.
The death of the student had sparked protests from political parties and student organisations. The case was transferred to a special team, led by then Additional Commissioner of Police, Central Crime Branch (CCB), and it submitted a report that there was no prima facie evidence of the three professors she had named abetting the suicide. Later, the case was transferred to the CBI in December 2019.
Now, the CBI, after completing the investigation, has filed a final report containing 2,000 pages in a special court for the CBI cases recently. It has concluded that Fathima ended her life because she had been homesick and had some psychological issues. It ruled out the probability of any mental harassment.
Mohammed Shah P. A., advocate for Mr. Latheef, said, “The CBI has now filed a final report stating that was a suicide — we have serious objections with this. Now, the court has issued notices to the parents of the victim. On Wednesday, we got the chargesheet. The matter was posted to February 28. We are going to file objections pointing out certain serious lapses on investigation.”
Mr. Shah said, “The enthusiasm of the warden to explain that homesickness is the reason for her death is suspect. Now, the CBI concluded that Fathima committed suicide due to homesickness. The CBI has no answer as to why she specifically mentioned the name of a professor immediately before her death and why she has not opted to write names of any other persons. Even when the CBI concludes that Fathima is having psychological issues the above question is necessarily to be answered.”
Role of teachers
He said the role of the teachers is highly important and no investigation with respect to their involvement was carried out by CBI. He said the CBI conducted the investigation by taking statements of the persons in a pick and choose method to conclude that Fathima committed suicide due to homesickness.
One of the student bodies, Chinta Bar had staged a protest on the campus demanding an internal probe. A student who participated in the protest and has since graduated said: “Initially the institute said it was cooperating. We sat on hunger strike and one of the demands was that there should be an internal investigation. The other demand was for student fraternity as a whole to tackle the issue of mental health of the students,” the student said.
The institute had declined to conduct an internal inquiry citing the ongoing police investigation. “The institute said the investigation was delayed because of COVID. Recently, the family had got to know unofficially that the CBI had not charged anyone. The family was looking to take this up legally but I don’t know what happened,” the graduate added.
With the institute yet to open, there has not been much interaction among students either, he added. “The incident happened when she had barely been in the institute for less than three months. The students were just beginning to get accustomed to college life. Soon afterwards with COVID breaking out the college hasn’t been opened,” he pointed out.
(Assistance for overcoming suicidal thoughts is available on the State’s health helpline 104 and Sneha’s suicide prevention helpline 044-24640050).
