19-year-old Dalit boxer commits suicide after school administration harasses her, parents demand proper probe

Parents and relatives of a 19-year-old Dalit girl, who had won state-level boxing tournaments, appealed to the Collector to order a proper investigation into the girl's unnatural death. In a petition submitted in the public grievance meet on Monday, they alleged that their daughter, Urekha, a third-year BE (Mechanical) student at a private college in Echanari in the outskirt of the city, consumed poison due to mental agony over the college management refused to allow her to participate boxing tournaments.

"My daughter had participated in many state level and national level boxing tournaments. She loved boxing. The physical director, professors, principal of the college denied to permission to participate in the recent state-level boxing championship despite she had prayed them to allow her as she loves boxing than other," said Buvaneshwari, wife of Jeganathan, who runs a Panipuri stall in the village. "Even, they ordered our child that she should not go for training to boxing. Getting frustrated over the management order, my daughter consumed poison when she was at her grand-mother home in the same village on June 30. After rescuing her, we admitted her to the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital (CMCH) for treatment. However, she died without responding to the treatment on July 1," the mother of the girl said.

They came to the Collector's office with dozens of medals that Urekha had won in many boxing tournaments and academic achievements. "My daughter studied with the support of the government's scholarship. In her class, she was the only girl out of 80 students. If she had any doubt or assistance in the academics, she had no other option but to approach male students in the class. Meanwhile, one of her professors, Shajahan, forbade her from speaking to male students. He threatened that he would share pictures of her speaking with male students in WhatsApp groups," they said. "On the date of issuing the hall ticket, she was asked to pay Rs 2000 as a fee. She was not allowed to write an exam since she was not able to pay the amount. Due to mental agony over the management's attitude, my child took the extreme step," she said and added that a proper inquiry should be ordered on her death and those involved should be punished. After receiving the petition, DRO T Ramadurai Murugan asked the officials of the City Police to investigate the matter.