A 19-year-old student Fathima Lateef of IIT Madras was found hanging in her hostel room in Chennai on Saturday morning.
Police suspect Fathima Latif, a first-year student of MA, humanities and development studies (integrated), may have killed herself after getting low internal marks.
According to an Indian Express report, the police have registered a case of unnatural death and said that no suicide note was found. However, her father Abdul Latif has sent out a petition to the Prime Minister seeking justice. He has mentioned a note in her cell phone which names her professor and another person (name withheld) as the cause of her death.
Her parents have also submitted a petition to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan seeking the state government’s intervention in Tamil Nadu police’s investigation of the case.
Twitter erupted after Fathima’s death calling #JusticeForFathimaLatheef. Twitter users claimed that she faced religious discrimination in IIT Madras, terming it as an ‘institutional murder’.
#FathimaLathif, committed suicide after facing religious and caste discrimination from @iitmadras faculty Sudarshan Padmanabhan. Heart Wrenching Nd shame for the whole nation.#JusticeForFathimaLatheef
— Voice Of Truth (@Voice_Of_IYC) November 13, 2019
“My name itself is the problem, vappichi”, she told her father.
The all india topper was forced to commit suicide due to caste-based and islamophobic harassment from the IIT teachers. pic.twitter.com/WL7yiA7Eqd
— Veni (@rebuild_kerala) November 13, 2019
#JusticeForFathimaLatheef a bright young student harassed for her religion in India's premier Institute @iitmadras . Action must be taken and such bigots should be removed from job and case filed against them.
— thaNAMOs (@kabirazad2017) November 13, 2019
https://twitter.com/Osamashaikhmba/status/1194573132239196160
Source: freepressjournal.in
