KOZHIKODE: In a distressing turn to the suicide incident of MBBS student Ooshmal Ullas, parents and family members of the girl have revealed she was a victim of cyberbullying which might have forced her to take this extreme step. Ooshmal was a fourth-year student at KMCT Medical College, Mukkom.
“My daughter had sent us a post she had uploaded to Facebook a few days ago. We believe the aftereffects of the post to be the primary reason behind her death,” says Ooshmal’s father Ullas.
On November 2, the medical students had written a post on the college confession page ‘KMCT Xposed-MBBS confessions’ directed at senior boys. The post mentioned how her seniors misbehaved with junior girls and how the students were often ‘labelled’ in the college. “Following the post, she started receiving threats and warnings on various social media platform. However, we were unaware of that until her death,” says Ullas.
In Ooshmal’s latest Facebook post on November 13, she had uploaded screenshots of the comments ‘directed’ at her initial post on the confessions page. She had asked the commentators to ‘quit pinning’ things on her and to rethink their actions.According to her father, Ooshmal had last spoken to her school friend pursuing an MBBS in Bulgaria before taking the decision to end her life by jumping from the fourth floor of the college building on Wednesday evening.
“Her friend called us on Thursday morning stating that Ooshmal had complained her about the threats and vulgar comments she was receiving. She said that there were some issues going on in this regard,” her father said.Ooshmal committed suicide on Wednesday evening by jumping off the top floor of a college building. Though she was immediately taken to KMCT Medical College Hospital, she succumbed to her injuries. Her body has been taken to Kozhikode Medical College for post-mortem.
However, according to the college authorities, the reason for the death is yet to be ascertained. A public relations officer of the college said the police had found a note. “She has not mentioned any names in the letter. We are unaware of the other contents of the letter,” the officer said. Police have launched a detailed probe into the incident.