Hyderabad: A day after a 26-year-old postgraduate medical student of a Warangal college died following an alleged suicide bid over suspected ragging, her family members have demanded a judicial probe in the matter.
While the family has questioned the suicide theory, police said the deceased, Dharavath Preeti, was a victim of “targeted harassment” by a senior.
On 22 February, D. Preethi, a first-year student pursuing an MD in anaesthesia at Warangal’s Kakatiya Medical College (KMC), was reportedly found unconscious in the staff room at MGM Hospital where she was on duty.
She was taken to Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) in Hyderabad later the same day for treatment where she died Sunday night.
Preethi was a member of the Banjara-Lambada community, which is categorised as a Scheduled Tribe in Telangana.
Following an uproar from D. Preethi’s family, on 24 February, the police arrested second-year student M.A. Saif. He has been booked under IPC sections 306 (abetment to suicide) and the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, besides sections related to ragging.
Meanwhile, assuring a fair probe into the issue, Telangana minister K.T. Rama Rao said at a public meeting Monday, “I want to express my condolences and also on behalf of my party to the family. The incident is very saddening.
“People (opposition) are trying to do politics over the issue, but I want to tell the family, whosoever is proven guilty will not be spared… Be it a Saif or a Sanjay — the government will punish them.”
Saif’s arrest was followed Friday by protests by students of the KMC. Holding placards that said “Innocent until proven guilty”, they demanded a fair probe into the incident, asking the police to explain why the said sections were imposed against Saif and what exactly happened to Preethi.
Also Read: ‘I was lost’: Thrust into world of IITs, rural Navodaya Vidyalaya alums have each other’s back
‘Targeted harassment, ragging’
Talking to the media Friday, Warangal Police Commissioner A.V. Ranganath said police had “analysed phone chats of the victim and the accused and found that there was targeted harassment against Preethi by Saif”.
“One of the last such incidents happened days before she was found unconscious. Saif put up one of the ‘poorly written case sheets’ under Preethi’s supervision in a WhatsApp group which has first-year and second-year students, and asked who had written this particular case sheet. He said it was ‘half-baked’.”
Ranganath said that Preethi replied to Saif privately saying that if he had any concerns, she was ready to discuss them in a private chat but not in the group. “There were several such incidents in the past as well. In one instance, he had said that she does not have a brain. He wasn’t doing this to other batchmates but only her,” he said, adding that Preethi felt continuously targeted and even told her friends about it.
“She felt harassed,” said Ranganath, adding that the police determined that it was a case of ragging as they also analysed Saif’s private chats with his friends, where he had asked them “not to cooperate with her”.
Ranganath said that Preethi felt alienated by her batchmates and seniors after she raised her voice.
The police suspect that Preethi may have committed suicide owing to this constant harassment. Ranganath said she could have injected herself with a muscle or nervous system relaxant from her emergency kit. However, Preethi’s toxicology and autopsy reports are awaited.
Ranganath said that the doctors they spoke to had also raised suspicion that this could be a case of cardiac arrest, “but we’re waiting for the reports”.
Also Read: After campus suicide, IIT-M students demand mental health study. ‘Stress, caste discrimination’
‘Want judicial probe’
D. Preethi’s father — D. Narender — is an Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) with the Railway Protection Force (RPF).
On 20 February, Preethi had reached out to her father about the WhatsApp incident, the police commissioner said. Narender, he added, informed local police and sought help.
The police, Ranganath said, subsequently approached the college management. When Saif was confronted by the head of the department about the incident, he denied any ragging angle and said he was only “correcting his junior’s mistakes as a senior” and that he just wanted her to be “better at her duty”, Ranganath added.
The family said Preethi had told them about the harassment in the past but they pacified her.
On Sunday night, D. Preethi’s family refused to take her body as they held a protest seeking a fair investigation. The police eventually convinced them to take her body and her last rites were performed at Girni Thanda village in Jangaon district Monday.
Preeti’s family members have now also said that she could have been murdered “for raising her voice”. In light of this, her father has demanded an inquiry by a sitting high court judge.
“She was a very bold girl. During the Covid pandemic, she served in hospitals and took care of the patients. We were scared but she continued her service. Why will such a girl take an extreme step like this? We suspect something fishy happened in the MGM hospital and she may have been attacked. They (college authorities) shifted her to Hyderabad, too, in a hurry,” said Preethi’s uncle, talking to the mediapersons Monday.
(Edited by Anumeha Saxena)
Also Read: ‘They punctured her scooter & waited’ — how 4 men executed horrific Hyderabad rape-murder