The Commissioner of Police, Chennai city has transferred the investigation into Fathima Latheef’s suicide to the Central Crime Branch. Fathima Latheef was a 19-year-old student at the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IITM). She killed herself inside her room on November 9.
Speaking to reporters after conducting an inquiry inside the campus, AK Viswanathan, the Commissioner of Police, said that the case will be investigated by a team of Central Crime Branch. The team will be led by former CBI DIG and the present Joint Commissioner of CCB, C Eswaramoorthy and will have another former Assistant Commissioner of CBI Prabakaran in it. Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police for Crimes against women and children S Megalina will be the investigating officer in the case, he said. “Since this has become a sensitive issue, we have decided that it is necessary to have senior officials investigating the case,” he said. AK Viswanathan visited the IITM campus on Thursday as demands for an impartial probe in the case is being placed from various quarters.
Abdul Latheef, Fathima’s father, told the press on Tuesday that he had evidence to prove that his daughter was being harassed by some professors in her department. She was a student of Department of Humanities and Social Sciences in IIT Madras. Seeking a fair probe into the death of his daughter, Abdul Latheef had also expressed concerns that her phone may be tampered with. The family found Fathima’s suicide notes on her mobile phone. She had allegedly named professors from her department in the notes she wrote before her death in her mobile phone.
Following the death, the Kotturpuram police had registered an FIR under section 174 of CrPC (Police to enquire and report on suicide, etc).