Following instructions from Telangana Governor Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan her secretariat has written to the vice-chancellor of the Kaloji Narayana Rao University of Health Sciences for a thorough inquiry into the death of a first year post-graduate medical student of Kakatiya Medical College in Warangal.

The students died five days after she attempted to end her life over ragging by her seniors. The governor called for a report on the anti-ragging measures and mechanism in place in the health university.

Advertisement

Dr Soundararajan took a serious note of the tragic incident involving Dr Dharavath Preethi and the letter termed the death as “terrible” and emphasised on the need for “a thorough inquiry from all possible angles to find out the truth. The governor’s office also called for a detailed report on the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) in place to deal with incidents of harassment and ragging in the health university.

The letter referred to loss of precious time while shifting the victims to NIMS Hyderabad and instead suggested that super-specialty experts and advanced medical equipment required for treating her could have been shifted to MGM Hospital.

The governor called for “strict implementation of the anti-ragging measures and anti-harassment laws in medical colleges with special focus on protecting the students, especially the women medical students”. She also called for strengthening of grievance redressal mechanism and creation of student counselling cell headed by the HoD of the Psychiatry wing in each medical college.

This, she said is particularly significant since Dr Preethi had informed her parents who in turn had contacted university authorities and police to stop her harassment but to no avail. A senior student Mohammad Ali Saif was arrested by Warangal police on charges of abetment to suicide, ragging and the SC/ST atrocities act was also invoked against him since she belonged to Banjara/Lambada community.

Dr Soundararajan had visited Preethi while she was fighting for her life.

While right wing groups and the BJP had viewed the incident from a religious perspective, Telangana minister KT Rama Rao said the culprit whether he was Saif or Sanjay will be brought to justice. Today, BRS MLC K Kavitha also wrote a letter to the parents of Preethi assuring them of support and make sure the culprits were punished and such incidents were not repeated.