Mehsana: The morning she died, a 19-year-old Dalit homeopathy student called her cousin, begging him to take her to the doctor. Then she called him back, saying she wasn’t getting permission to leave the college premises. Hours later, the first-year student from Merchant Homoeopathic Medical College & Hospital in Mehsana, Gujarat, killed herself.
“My suicide will help my friends,” she wrote in a note that the police later found.
Her death on 29 January has shaken the community, campus, and college. It has put the institution under scrutiny over allegations of harassment, bullying, and abuse. A wave of student protests forced the administration to shut down classes for four days.
Since then, four professors, along with the principal, have been arrested for abetment of suicide, but are now out on bail. Her friends alleged that for the last two months her professors had increasingly targeted her —verbally abusing and singling her out for punishment.
Classes have now resumed on campus, but there’s an undercurrent of tension. The four accused professors have been barred from conducting classes. Faculty members that ThePrint approached refused to comment on the Dalit student’s death. And students are worried that the protests they participated in will be held against them as they prepare for the final exams in April.
I told my daughter that professors are called Guruji and they would have no wrong intention…
-Parvin Shrimali, suicide victim’s father
“We are very scared. We want to pass this exam,” said one of the victim’s friends who did not want to be named.
Meanwhile, the student’s family is still trying to make sense of what led to her death.
When she finally confided in her father, he struggled to believe it—teachers weren’t meant to behave like this.
“My daughter wanted to become a doctor since childhood, she was talented and hardworking, I wish I had known about harassment earlier. My daughter would have been alive,” said her father, Parvin Shrimali, a lawyer at Patdi court in Surendranagar district.
Principal Kailash Jinga Patel has denied these allegations.
“I did not expect that this would happen in our college. I have been teaching here for more than 35 years,” he told ThePrint.
Two days after her suicide, police found a note in her hostel room where she called her professors “Haivan” and “Yamraj”—demon and the god of death.
When teachers allegedly became tormenters
The Dalit student’s close friend, Anjitha Patel, was devastated—but not shocked. A month ago, the first-year homeopathy student had been pulled up by her professor in front of the entire class. It was just one more instance of what Patel alleged was a pattern of bullying and harassment they had faced since enrolling at Merchant Homeopathic Medical College.
“[After that incident], she told me, ‘I want to commit suicide’,” said Patel. A month later, she was found dead in her hostel room.
The young woman was thrilled when she got a seat at the college. She had always wanted to become a doctor, even as a child. She had managed to gain admission without tuition or coaching classes, according to her father. In 2024, she left her home in Nagvada village, Surendranagar district, for the first time in her life, determined to make her dream a reality. She was on track to becoming the first homeopath in her family.
But over the last few months, that dream had become a nightmare. Another classmate, who did not want to be named, recalled an incident where one of the professors named in the FIR insulted the Dalit student.
“He said, ‘Tumhari aukaad mein raha karo,’ when scolding her,” claimed the classmate—although there is no mention of this in the FIR.
Two days after her suicide, police found a note in her hostel room where she called her professors “Haivan” and “Yamraj”—demon and the god of death. Of the six professors who taught her, she named four—professor of homoeopathic materia medica Vipakshi Suresh Rao Wasnik; professor of medicine Prashant Chandmalji Nuwal; professor of pharmacy Y Chandra Bose; and professor of physiology Sanjay Rithe—as well as the principal, Kailash Jinga Patil.
They have been booked under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Sections 108 (abetment of suicide) and 54 (being present when an offence is committed) and under Section 3(2)(v) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
There are regular disciplinary processes of the college, and all students have to maintain that. We have to maintain attendance, and in case students are not able to maintain 70-80 per cent attendance, we cannot allow them to take exams. This is not harassment
-Principal Kailash Jinga Patel
In the FIR, her father Shrimali alleged that Wasnik shouted at the young woman and threatened to fail her in the exams. He claimed that Nuwal made her rewrite journals three times and forced her to stand outside class for three hours despite her not having made any mistake. The FIR also stated that Nuwal touched her inappropriately. Bose would allegedly call her alone to the classroom and make lewd comments.
Shrimali said his daughter had confided in him about how Rithe, who taught physiology, would humiliate her in class and then try to touch her inappropriately under the pretext of consoling her. In his account to the police, when she complained to the principal, Rithe allegedly told her she would have to endure it if she wanted to continue her studies at the college.
“These are allegations. I don’t know anything about it,” Patil told ThePrint.
The woman’s family petitioned the Mehsana district court to book the accused under BNS 74 (assault or use of criminal force against a woman) and 75 (unwelcome and explicit sexual overtures). But their plea was dismissed on the grounds that the police did not have sufficient evidence of sexual harassment.
According to Shrimali, his daughter told him what was happening in January after a college trip.
“I told my daughter that professors are called Guruji and they would have no wrong intention…,” he said in the FIR.
The police have refused to divulge details of their investigation so far.
“It is still underway, and we are questioning students and professors. The chargesheet has not been filed yet,” said Tarun Duggal, SP of Mehsana.
Several first-year students that ThePrint spoke to claimed that bullying and harassment by professors was routine.
Bullying or ‘discipline’?
The 60–acre Merchant Education Campus offers several courses, including a 5.5-year homeopathy programme at its homeopathic college, which was established in 2017 with a faculty of around 33 professors. The relatively new campus primarily caters to students from low- to middle-income families, with fees priced at Rs 95,000 per year.
Several first-year students that ThePrint spoke to claimed that bullying and harassment by professors was routine.
“This was a common scene at our college. Students were targeted at the beginning of the semester, and this continued for the rest of year,” said the victim’s friend, Patil.
The principal denied these allegations, arguing that students were conflating discipline and rules with harassment.
“There are regular disciplinary processes of the college, and all students have to maintain that. We have to maintain attendance, and in case students are not able to maintain 70-80 per cent attendance, we cannot allow them to take exams. This is not harassment,” he said.
We didn’t know she was going through so much. I was also targeted. We had decided to change colleges. But before we could find a solution, this happened
-Anjitha Patel, friend of the suicide victim
But several classmates of the Dalit student told ThePrint she was singled out more often than not.
Things came to head between the young woman and the administration at the start of the year, when first-year students were preparing for a trip to Jaipur for a pharmacy visit, followed by an excursion to Haridwar from 5-13 January. Patel and the Dalit student wanted two days of leave before the trip to visit their homes, so they approached the principal for permission.
“He said yes. But when we were in class, Professor Vipakshi came in and yelled at both of us for going to the principal. He even threatened that he wouldn’t let us pass the exam,” said Patel.
After the professor’s outburst, the young woman broke down in front of Patel.
“I want to die,” she had said. This took place on 2 January.
The two women wrote an apology letter to the principal and the professor, but according to Patel, it was not accepted. Professor Vipakshi did not respond to ThePrint’s requests for his version of events.
A few days later, the student had another run-in with a different professor named in the FIR.
“The professor had asked all students to bring a specific book to class. Those who didn’t were asked to stand outside. Then, suddenly, he wanted to know the names of the two girls who had requested leave before the college trip,” said a classmate who did not want to be named. “He made Anjitha and the victim stand outside with the rest of the students even though they had the book.”
Principal Jinga Patil denied knowledge of this. “I had given permission to both the girls,” he said.
Too late
After returning from the college trip, the young woman confided in her parents. Her father was shocked and deeply worried.
“I had planned to go to college so that I could speak to professors, but before I could go, my daughter committed suicide,” said Shrimali.
He never got the chance to confront the principal. Shrimali was at court when he got a call from the college informing him that his daughter had attempted to end her life and was being taken to Mehsana Civil Hospital. By the time he arrived, she was dead.
A few days later, he was back at court—not as a lawyer, but as a grieving father seeking justice. Looking frail and visibly shaken, he ran from the lawyer’s desk to the courtroom, and then stood under the winter sun, dialling numbers of students who could help corroborate the facts.
It was her friends, Patel and Puja Makvana, who found her. On 29 January, the three friends had stepped out to the local pharmacy. But the young woman said she wanted to go back to the hostel.
“After we reached the hostel, we asked her if she wanted to come for lunch. She said she didn’t feel like eating and was going to take a bath instead,” said Patel.
When her friends returned after lunch, they tried opening the door but found it locked from the inside.
“Puja climbed on a stool to peep through the small window above the door when we saw her hanging in the room,” Patel added.
Her friends remember her as a cheerful person who could be naive and introverted. She rarely shared what she was feeling, they said.
“We didn’t know she was going through so much. We had so much fun on that trip. I was also targeted. We had decided to change colleges. But before we could find a solution, this happened,” said Patel.
Back at the district court, the young woman’s older brother, Devendra, scrolled through his phone, looking for some documents. That’s when he stumbled upon the last video reel she had sent him from the class trip. She was in a car with her friends, flashing the universal peace sign at the camera, a huge grin on her face.