Two days after a Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) student was found dead at a private medical college in Kerala’s Kannur district, his family on Sunday alleged that he was murdered and that a senior faculty member had repeatedly hurled caste-based insults at him and commented on his skin colour.
While his family members claim that he was pushed from the third floor of the six-storey college building, Chakarakkal police, which registered a case of unnatural death, said initial findings point to suicide.
The first-year BDS student, a native of Nedumangad in Thiruvananthapuram district belonging to the Scheduled Caste (SC) community, was found dead on the premises of Kannur Medical College in Anjarakandy around 1:30 pm on Friday.
“We are currently treating it as a case of suicide. We are yet to find evidence that he was pushed out of the building by anyone. We have not recovered a suicide note either. The doctor who conducted the post-mortem said the death resulted from injuries during the fall. The final report is still awaited,” a senior police officer told HT.
The officer said they were investigating the cause of the student’s suicide.
Meanwhile, his family members alleged that the faculty, including Dr. K. Ram, the head of the oral pathology department, who is now suspended, targeted him using racist insults and threatened to cut off his hands.
“Professor Ram always targeted him. He even called him a rabid dog. He was abused on the basis of his dark skin and caste. In class, when he insults a student, he wants the other students to laugh. When some students don’t laugh, he beats them,” his sister told local media on Sunday.
“We had earlier complained to the college principal, but he denied it. If the cyber cell can get the call records, everything will become clear. My younger brother would not have committed suicide and was probably pushed out of the building. He called me via video on Thursday as well, and he seemed fine,” she said.
An audio clip of the first-year student talking to his friend about the “insult” he suffered from teachers in the staff room is also circulating on social media. His family confirmed that the clip was real.
The clip shows the student telling his friend that one of the teachers threatened to cut off his hands if he left the college gates and that he would be forced to walk around like a disabled person.
“He called me an idiot. I told him the same thing. You have no idea what they told me in the staff room. They threatened to cut off my hands and feet if I stepped out of the gates. He said he wanted to see me walking around without limbs. I said I would like to see him try. Teachers like Dr. Sangeetha in the audio clip stood and watched.”
HT was unable to independently verify the audio clip.
Following these allegations, the college administration suspended Dr. Ram and Dr. Sangeetha pending investigation.
B S Sanjeev, state minister of the CPM’s student wing, said there were similar allegations against the college management in the past.
“It is very sad that someone’s life has been lost. There have been serious complaints against the administration there in the past and we even organized protests. Student bodies like ours cannot effectively intervene in issues there. If a student approaches us, he will be expelled,” Sanjeev said.
