CHENNAI/KOLLAM : Mystery surrounds the ‘suicide’ note of Fathima Latheef, the IIT-Madras student who took her life inside the hostel room last week after the Tamil Nadu police on Wednesday claimed that no one has access to the Kollam girl’s phone, which contained the alleged note. Police in Kotturpuram in Chennai said Fathima’s mobile phone was in their custody and it would be opened and its contents checked only after her parents reach Chennai on Thursday. The phone will also be given for forensic tests, the Kotturpuram police said.
The police version, however, contradicts the statements of Fathima’s father Abdul Latheef. Latheef said when he and Fathima’s sister Aysha reached Chennai to receive her body on Saturday, they saw the ‘suicide’ note in her mobile. He said when Aysha switched it on, she found two notes mentioning the names of three professors, whom she blamed for her taking the extreme step. Latheef said Aysha had seen the text “(Prof’s name) is the cause of my death. PS: Check samsung notes”.
Latheef expressed concern that his daughter’s mobile phone containing the suicide note would be tampered with under the undue influence of IIT Madras authorities. “When Fathima’s phone was switched on by my daughter Aysha, it opened without asking for a password. As soon as it was opened, Aysha was shocked to see the message on the home screen, which said one of her professors was responsible for her death,” he said.
As she wanted everyone to know the cause of her death, Fathima had removed the password provision from her phone, Latheef said. “We are also afraid that as the police have not mentioned anything about the suicide note till date, they might try to tamper with it due to pressure from ITI authorities,” he added.
Meanwhile, after the alleged suicide note went viral on the social media, there have been protests from people belonging to all walks of life. SFI activists have also come out in protest against the suicide, calling it ‘institutional murder’. Fathima’s family friends, including Kollam Mayor V Rajendrababu, and her twin sister who reached Chennai on November 9, were summoned by the Kotturpuram police.
CPM plea to Centre
Condemning IIT-M for not having conducted a proper investigation into the death of five students in just one year, CPM State Secretary K Balakrishnan, in a release, urged the police to initiate a fair probe into Fathima’s death. He also appealed to the Union Ministry of HRD to take action against the professor responsible for the girl’s suicide.
MP writes to HRD Ministry
NK Premachandran, MP, has written to the HRD minister and Tamil Nadu CM requesting intervention in the matter. “It is learnt that instead of carrying out a proper investigation, the Tamil Nadu police are trying to close the whole matter by calling it a suicide as the girl scored low marks in her internal exams. The authorities should intervene in the matter,” the MP said.
Protest
Around 20 members of the Campus Front of India, a students’ organisation, staged a protest on Wednesday, demanding a CBI inquiry. out a fair probe,” said the MP.