Daijiworld Media Network - Kasargod (SP)

Kasargod, Jun 24: In a shocking letter written by Ashwithi, a 19-year-old dalit student from Kerala, who is currently unable to speak, to an advocate, the nursing student explained that her seniors at Al Qamar Nursing College, Kalaburagi, ragged her by ridiculing her dark complexion before pouring phenyl down her throat.

Reportedly, the fellow students at the hostel also made fun of Ashwithi because her father had abandoned her family when she was young.

Ashwithi, who is trying to speak, is unable to do so because her esophagus was badly damaged due to strong chemicals contained in the toilet cleaner. Both Karnataka and Kerala police are trying to extract more details from the student, who is currently lodged in Kozhikode Medical College Hospital, as the version given by college authorities at Kalaburagi contradicts what the student is claiming.   

"I attended college from December 2015 to May 2016 but had to stop education because of mental torture I suffered at the hands of some third year degree students. Junior students were  ordered to wish senior several times every day. Failing compliance, the erring student was given a thorough tongue lashing.  Many a time, I had to kneel down and move around in that position as per the diktats of my senior room mates, all of whom hail from Kerala. Sometimes I had to leap like a frog. On the night of May 9, two senior students asked me and my room mate to come to their room.  When we went there, there were five students. Seeing us, one among them questioned whether one of the roommates was on leave, before speaking about us in a derogatory manner," she explained.

"As time passed by, the situation turned worse. We were asked to write down names of seniors whom we like and dislike. I took courage and wrote names of two students who had asked us to come there. They got angry, and abused me by making fun of my dark complexion. They said that it is not surprising that  my father abandoned me and my mother.  We were then asked to leave, duly keeping door and windows of our room open. Within sometime thereafter, the seniors entered our room, and poured toilet cleaner into my mouth. I suffered from breathlessness and fell to the ground. Other senior students rushed to my rescue and tried to emty liquid from my stomach by inserting their fingers into my throat. Since then I am being shifted from one hospital to the other. I am suffering. I want justice," she said in her letter.

Copies of this letter have been sent to the chief ministers of Karnataka and Kerala states too, it is gathered.