As political parties including the DMK staged protests on Friday pressing their demand for "a transparent" probe into the suicide of an IIT Madras student, the institution said it is extending full cooperation to the police investigation, transferred to the Central Crime Branch.
As opposition parties stepped up pressure, the student's father, who has earlier alleged that a faculty was responsible for his daughter's extreme action, met Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami and the state police chief here and demanded a fair probe and said they promised necessary action.
A day after the case related to the suicide of first year Humanities student Fathima Latheef, who ended her life in the hostel on November 9, was transferred to the Central Crime Branch, police officials visited the campus in connection with the investigation.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, meanwhile, said the state DGP Loknath Behra had contacted his counterpart in Tamil Nadu and also the Chennai city police commissioner.
DMK cadres held placards embossed with images of Fathima and slogans like "besiege IIT protest; seeking justice for Fathima Latheef."
The IIT Madras, in a statement, here asserted it was committed to fair play and said the social media trolling against it, the faculty members and students and "trial by the media, even before the conclusion of the police investigation, is gravely demoralising..."
The students, faculty, staff, and residents were deeply saddened and "extremely perturbed by the unfortunate and untimely demise of our student, Fathima Lathief, and the events that unfolded thereafter."
He claimed "no one from the IIT Madras spoke to him or his family or visited the morgue following Fathima's death."
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