Reporter: Smitha TK
Video Editor: Mohd Irshad Alam
After protesting for a week, the body of the 19-year-old physiotherapy student who died by suicide in Nagapattinam last week, allegedly due to mistreatment by her college for non-payment of fees, was laid to rest on Tuesday, 5 April.
S Subashini's family was assured that the college staff will be interrogated.
The family had been protesting in front of the Government Nagapattinam General Hospital, seeking the arrest of the college administrators. Subashini was allegedly ill-treated by the college for not paying her fees in time and was under depression, her family alleged. She died by suicide on 30 March.
The college correspondent T Ananth, principal P Lakshmikanth and class teacher Jency have been booked under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
The body was taken from the Nagapattinam government hospital in an ambulance to Nagore, for cremation. Hundreds of people, including students from the college, relatives, and members of the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK), and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) followed the ambulance in a procession on the Nagapattinam-Nagore Road and paid their last respects.
Police personnel were deployed in and around Nagore to maintain the law and order situation.
"She was depressed for three days. They had told her not to come to the college anymore. She finally told me yesterday that she was being made to stand outside the class and asked me to arrange for the money. I said I will arrange for it, but she took this extreme step by then," said Subramani, her father.
The police had sent the body for postmortem autopsy amid protests by the student's family and student outfits.
The investigation is going on. We have spoken to over 25 students of the college and have not found evidence that supports the allegations of caste discrimination. We shall explore all and investigate the case.S Jawahar, Nagapattinam Superintendent of Police to The Quint
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