IIT student suicide: Family meets CM, teachers record their statements

CHENNAI: Investigations into the suicide of a IIT-Madras student last week gained momentum on Friday with the Central Crime Branch (CCB) of the City Police recording the statement of three faculty members of the Humanities and Social Sciences Department who are alleged to have harassed the young woman.

Parents of the woman,19, called on chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami at the secretariat to press for a fair and speedy investigation and punish the guilty.

Earlier in the day, they also met the state’s DGP and lodged a complaint. This was the first complaint by the family. The police are proceeding with an earlier case booked under Sec 174 of the IPC relating to unnatural death.

The deceased, from Kollam in Kerala, a first year student of the five-year MA programme in Development Studies, was found hanging from a ceiling fan in her room on November 9. Police said the girl was homesick and had scored low marks in exams.

However, the case took a turn with her father releasing what he said were messages found in the victim’s mobile phone.

One, kept as a wallpaper on the phone named a professor as the cause for her death. Another note on the phone named two more professors. “The three faculty members who were questioned on Thursday were also questioned on Friday and their statements were recorded,” a CCB official said on condition of anonymity. In statement released to the media, the IIT administration made it clear that while mourning the death of the ‘promising student’ and extending all cooperation to the investigation, it stood by its faculty, staff and students. HT couldn’t reach the three faculty allegedly named in the messages.

Political parties including the main opposition Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) staged protests on Friday pressing for a probe. DMK leader MK Stalin on Thursday called for a “transparent and independent” investigation into the episode.