Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin had assured all support to the family of deceased IIT Madras student Fathima Latheef, said her father Abdul Latheef. Latheef had come out of a 30-minute-long meeting with Stalin on Wednesday at 10 in the morning. Fathima, a former master's student of IIT Madras had died by suicide in November 2019, allegedly owing to religious discrimination by faculty.
"The Chief Minister promised all support and said that he will follow up the matter closely. He said that he will help us raise the issue in parliament too, through DMK MP Kanimozhi Karunanidhi," said Latheef. During the time of Fathima's death, both Stalin and Kanimozhi had raised their voice against the issue. The latter had even accused IIT Madras of protecting the professors whom Fathima had named. "What is even the point of these institutions if students are killing themselves here," she then asked.
Latheef said that he had submitted a brief of what had happened in the case until now, to the Chief Minister. When asked if he is hopeful of the accused getting punished, Latheef said that the fight is still on and he would wait to see how the investigation transpires now. "The fight will go on. The people behind my daughter's death must be punished. I will fight for this until my last breath," he said. "I will comment more on this, once the investigation report comes," he added. Latheef had reached Chennai from Kollam in Kerala on Monday night and is set to go back home tonight.
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Fathima, in her suicide note, had alleged that she took the drastic step due to harassment from a professor at the institution. The probe on her death was transferred to the CBI from the Central Crime Branch in December 2019, following which a CBI team took statements from Fathima’s family nine months ago. The family, however, later alleged the investigation had made little progress after that.
