The news of a fourth-year MBBS student from a popular Medical College in Kozhikode committing suicide was very tragic, no doubt. But what is even worrisome is that a post on a Facebook Confession page could have been the reason behind this painful decision. According to the Mukkam Police, 22-year-old Ooshmal Ullas, a fourth-year MBBS student at KMCT Medical College, committed suicide on the night of November 15 by jumping from the fourth floor of the college's BDS block. The police have registered a case of suicide.
However, if student accounts are to be believed, this may be a case of cyberbullying gone horribly wrong. According to a student unionist attached to the Kozhikode Unit of the Kerala Students Union (KSU), Ooshmal had been accused of putting up an anonymous post on the KMCT Xposed - MBBS Confessions page demeaning a junior of hers. The turgid response to the post included accusations that Ooshmal was secretly the administrator of the page and had personally been posting malicious things about her classmates and others.
Confession pages are unofficially maintained for most colleges by students who wish to anonymously post messages to other students, professors or troll the management. Most often it is playful but some posts have been known to cause some serious emotional and psychological scarring. "Most of the posts on these (confession) pages are meant to demean people personally. Some of the students accused Ooshmal of posting one such confession that was directed towards a junior student," said the KSU leader who did not wish to be named.
As this issue heated up, there was qapparently uite a bit of friction among the students — a series of arguments between Ooshmal and others that spiralled and allegedly ended with the girl committing suicide. When contacted, an Architecture student studying in the same college group said, "There is talk going around that she took this tragic decision because she was being falsely accused of something she hasn't done."
The KSU member went on to allege that Ooshmal defended herself and said that she had nothing to do with the post, though her juniors were convinced that it was her, "Ooshmal is said to have had arguments with a few other students related to this before she took the final step," he said. On November 13, Ooshmal posted this on Facebook: "Only now did I come across a comment that has a direct reference to one of my earlier posts on my Facebook account on the infamous Kmct confession page. Quit pinning someone else's crap on me! If you feel victimized by anything written by anyone in any page then maybe you think again about why you feel so. And about the hate or love that I feel for my batch or any other batch is none of your f****** concern."
Though two other students had come forward on Wednesday and posted their pictures and claimed that they were the admins of the group — thus dissociating Ooshmal from the charge that she was running the page, it doesn't look like the friction died down. "The police investigation states that she received a call on her mobile sometime before she committed suicide," said the KSU leader, indicating that mounting peer pressure could have been the final straw.
Police have stopped at registering a case of suicide, though investigations are still ongoing.
