Congress MP Shashi Tharoor has backed the allegations of a dental student's parents and friends, claiming that the 22-year-old was subjected to relentless verbal abuse, casteist slurs, threats, and deliberate academic sabotage by faculty members at Kannur's Anjarakandy Dental College.
The victim, Nithin Raj RL, was a first-year BDS student who died after falling from a building on April 10, with police launching a probe into the incident.
Tharoor, who represents Thiruvananthapuram in the Lok Sabha, said that while the suspension of two faculty members was a start, it was 'nowhere near enough' and demanded a thorough criminal investigation and full accountability across the college administration.
He also referred to the death of another student, JS Sidharthan, who died in a suspected suicide in February 2024, alleging that it was a result of brutal 'mob-trial' style ragging and physical torture.
Tharoor said that these incidents were symptoms of a deeply diseased campus culture that preys on the vulnerable and shields the powerful, and demanded that institutions must be sanctuaries of learning and dignity, not arenas of humiliation and impunity.
