KOTTAYAM: In the latest of the gruesome attacks by jilted lovers on young women in Kerala, a 22-year-old was killed by a classmate by slitting her throat on the St Thomas College campus in Pala on Friday noon. The deceased is Nithinamol from Thalayolaparambu near Vaikom in Kottayam. The police took attacker Abhishek Baiju, 20, hailing from Koothattukulam, into custody. Abhishek, who confessed to the crime, told the police he did not intend to kill her.
According to the police, the incident occurred around 11.15am. Nithinamol and Abhishek, both BVoc Food Processing Technology students, came to the college to attend final-year exams. Eyewitnesses said they were talking to each other near the ground after their exam. Their talk soon led to an altercation and Abhishek suddenly pinned Nithinamol down and slit her throat using a pen knife. Though she was rushed to a nearby hospital by college staff, hospital authorities declared her brought dead.
“I found them talking at 11.15am. I walked towards them to send them off as students are not allowed to be together on the campus as per Covid protocol. I saw them getting into an altercation and the boy pulled the girl down,” said Jose, a security staffer.
‘I thought their affair had ended’
“Soon I found blood gushing from the girl’s neck. I soon called the principal. The girl was alive when she was taken to the hospital,” said Jose. Abhishek’s father Baiju said the two were in love but he had opposed it as the girl was older than his son.
“We knew Abhishek and Nithinamol were in love, but it was almost two years ago. I opposed it as the girl was older than my son. There were some other reasons as well. I thought they had ended the affair. They might have been communicating over the phone,” Baiju said.
Senior police officers including Kottayam district police chief Shilpa Devaiah and Pala DySP visited the crime spot. Higher Education Minister R Bindu said such incidents revealed the fact that the issue of mental health of college students needs more attention. “The UGC has directed the universities to implement the Jeevani scheme which offers free counselling to students in all colleges. Government colleges already have counsellors as part of the programme.
We will extend it to all colleges,” Bindu told reporters. She said proper awareness sessions on gender justice and gender equality need to be provided to students. “We have decided to introduce sessions for improving the mental health of students when colleges reopen. Based on the recent incident, we will plan those sessions with more seriousness,” she said.