india

Updated: Nov 17, 2019 01:58 IST

A Central Crime Branch (CCB) team of Chennai police probing the suicide case of IIT-Madras student Fathima Latheef, questioned her father, Abdul Latheef, and her sister for three hours on Saturday and asked them to submit her laptop and gadgets for further investigation.

19-year old Fathima from Kollam in Kerala was a first year student of the five-year MA programme in Development Studies at IIT Madras. She was found hanging from a ceiling fan in her room on the morning of November 9.

The Kotturpuram police had then said the girl had taken the extreme step as she was homesick and had scored very low marks in her internal examinations.

But Latheef blamed three faculty members of the Humanities and Social Sciences Department of IIT for his daughter’s death and shared pictures from her mobile phone to back his claim.

The case was then transferred to the CCB after City Police Commissioner AK Viswanathan visited IIT campus and questioned the faculty, staff and students.

After Saturday’s questioning, Latheef said the police asked him to submit the laptop and other gadgets used by Fathima for examination.

“I have handed over to the police the diary of Fathima and the audio recording of the person who first saw his daughter’s body. They have asked for the laptop, hard disk and cell phone used by her. I will submit them as requested,” he told the media.

Latheef later in the afternoon met the police commissioner seeking a speedy and fair investigation. He had met Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and Director General of Police, JK Tripathy on Friday.

After meeting the commissioner, Latheef said he was confident that Tamil Nadu police would ensure justice for his daughter.

“I was assured that they are treating the case as one concerning a Tamil girl and that proper action will be taken in the next two days,” he said.

Earlier, he had claimed that no official from IIT-Madras had reached out to the family and alleged that some articles from Fathima’s room had been removed.