The 20-year-old veterinary student Sidharthan JS, whose body was found hanging inside the bathroom of the college hostel in Kerala’s Wayanad district on February 18, was assaulted for around 29 hours “continuously” by seniors and classmates before he died by suicide, according to a media report.
Citing information from Kerala police’s file that was handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), a report by Indian Express said seniors and peers “physically and mentally tortured” Sidharthan, driving him to take his own life.
CBI took over the probe into the death of the second-year student of the College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences in Kerala’s Wayanad district on Friday evening.
What Did The Police Report Say?
Citing the police documents, IE reported that Sidharthan was subjected to ‘cruel ragging’ by his peers and seniors from 9 am on February 16 to 2 pm on February 17. They reportedly assaulted him with hands and using a belt.
“This made him in an utter stage of mental stress and feeling that he can neither continue study in the Institute and complete this course nor go home dropping the course. As he is so mentally stressed, he felt that there is no option for him other than suicide, he committed suicide by hanging himself in the bathroom of men’s hostel in between 12.30 pm and 13.45 pm on February 18,” IE reported citing the police documents.
“Police had initially registered a case of unnatural death, but during the investigation conducted so far, it is understood from the report produced by the anti-ragging squad of the college, from the statement of the dean of the college, from the statement of the medical officer, who conducted autopsy and from the statement of the other witnesses, Sidharthan, was ‘physically and mentally tortured’ by some senior students and classmates,” the report added.
CBI’s FIR
CBI has re-registered the FIR filed at the Vythiri police station in Waynad against 20 people late Friday night, within hours of receiving a notification from the central government in this connection. The accused have been booked under IPC sections related to criminal conspiracy, abetment to suicide, wrongful restraint, voluntarily causing hurt and Kerala’s anti-ragging law.
A CBI team will visit the state soon with a forensics team, the officials said.
According to the procedure, the CBI starts a probe in such state-referred cases by re-registering the FIR of local police.
The findings which are submitted in the form of a final report to a court after the completion of the probe can be completely different from the allegations in the FIR.
Political Uproar and Demand for CBI Probe
After it came to light, the issue had snowballed into a political controversy with the opposition Congress and the BJP alleging the government was yet to hand over necessary files to the CBI weeks after the assurance.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had assured a CBI probe on March 9 after political uproar.
The Kerala government had recently suspended three employees of the Home Department alleging “dereliction and unresponsiveness” in handing over documents and details to the Central Bureau of Investigation with regard to the investigation.
Besides the opposition, the deceased student’s family also came out against the government, alleging that the government was deliberately trying to delay the CBI probe by not handing them over the necessary files and destroying the evidence.
Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the NDA candidate for the Thiruvananthapuram Lok Sabha seat, had assured the student’s family to expedite the launch of the CBI investigation into the death.
The Congress-led UDF had also accused the Left government in Kerala and the police of trying to save those responsible for the death of a student of the state-run College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences in Wayanad by delaying the transfer of the case to the CBI.
The victim’s father, Jayaprakash, has alleged that his son was being harassed for eight months before his death, according to a news report.
He also claimed various senior SFI leaders were “camping” at the college for several months and his son was allegedly made to strip and sit on his knees.
“They were all aware of what was going on. They could have put an end to it back then. I cannot believe that the senior SFI leaders were unaware of what was happening there,” he said.
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