Central University of Kerala panel calls for CBI inquiry into PhD scholar's suicide

Kasaragod: The Central University of Kerala's internal committee, constituted to inquire into the suspected suicide of a PhD scholar, has recommended a CBI investigation to find the circumstances that led to her death.

The report, which refrained from assigning blame for the death, was submitted to Vice-Chancellor in charge Prof Baiju K C on Friday.

Even more than a month after Hindi scholar Rubi Patel (25) was found dead in the university's hostel, Bekal police, investigating the unnatural death, have not taken the statements of teachers and students, or secured the CCTV footage from the camera in the chamber of her supervisor Prof Taru S Pawar. An officer blamed the slow-paced investigation on the Lok Sabha election which was on April 26.

Rubi's elder sisters Dr Asharani Patel, a scientist at ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute in Jharkhand's Hazaribagh, and Nisha Patel, an economics PhD scholar in Hyderabad Central University, have alleged that "unwarranted academic pressure exerted by her guide Prof Pawar and the accumulated humiliation, experienced in small doses from him, pushed her to take the extreme step. Prof Pawar has denied the charges and said he was always around Rubi as a helping and understanding mentor.

The university's 11-member committee, however, could not arrive at a conclusion despite taking the statements of 36 people, including PhD scholars, faculty members, non-teaching staff and Rubi's sisters.

The two PhD scholars on the inquiry committee – Shibina E (International Relations & Politics) and Abhijith C (Linguistics) – abstained from signing the report in protest for not holding any individual or factor responsible for Rubi's death.

'Snuffed out the life of a first generation learner'
Rubi Patel was the third of four children of Chhanda Charan Patel and Jashoda Patel, paddy farmers in Salhepali, a village in Odisha's Bargarh district on the border of Chhattisgarh. The youngest child of the couple Chandramani Patel is doing his PhD in botany in JNU.

They come from a village (Salhepali) where the literacy rate among females is only 62 per cent, according to the 2011 Census. The close-knit siblings struggled their way up to escape poverty and supported financially Dr Asharani when she started getting her PhD fellowship.

In 2014, Dr Asharani Patel's younger sister Nisha Patel was diagnosed with a malignant tumour on her knee. The eldest sister took her to Tata Memorial Centre in Mumbai for treatment. After 14 rounds of chemotherapy, Nisha Patel was declared cancer-free. "With great difficulty, I nurtured my family emotionally and professionally. I managed to save one sister from cancer and tried to give very good education. My father also had to undergo a major surgery," said Dr Asharani.

With her fellowship, she also built a small house with one bedroom, a hall, and a kitchen. During the first lockdown, the four siblings painted the house.

After surviving cancer, Nisha joined Rubi at Hyderabad Central University for their master's degree. "We were in the same hostel room and our bond became stronger," said Nisha.

After Rubi joined the Central University of Kerala for her PhD, she would talk to Nisha for around one hour every day. "She would share every minute little things of the day," said Nisha.

The small doses of humiliation
Nisha said Prof Pawar was not her choice of guide but he chose her as his PhD scholar. "I was a bit taken aback because, in HCU, I chose my guide. But Prof Pawar said Hindi literature was a wide subject and any teacher could supervise any subject," she said.

Prof Pawar's focus area was Dalit literature and Rubi's topic was 'child psychology depicted in the Hindi autobiographies of prominent women'.

He never guided her and Rubi was forced to depend on other students, alleged Nisha. "He used to humiliate her by asking her to learn from her juniors in front of the juniors," she said.

Prof Pawar also repeatedly scolded her if she interacted with other faculty members, she said. Recently when Rubi attended a birthday party of another faculty member, he scolded her for four days, said Dr Asharani and Nisha. "He wanted total social control on her and his other students," said Nisha.

Once Rubi reportedly told Nisha that she was reading up a lot "but for him, I am a poor student".

Rubi cleared the National Eligibility Test (NET) thrice, and in July 2023, she got the National Fellowship for Other Backward Classes (NFOBC)

A good student with stage fright
Several students and teachers, including Dr Pawar, said Rubi was a good student and delivered what was expected of her. But she had stage fright, they said. In January, she fumbled while presenting her work during the review by the Research Advisory Committee (RAC). "I asked her to read what was written and go," said Dr Pawar. He said he was trying to ease her out of a difficult situation.

But Rubi took it as a slight, said Nisha. "Instead of helping build her confidence, the guide snubbed her,"

Her next RAC review was scheduled for April 4. Prof Pawar said he told Rubi on April 1 that he could postpone the presentation if she was not ready.

'Something happened on April 1'
Those in the department said Prof Pawar was highly unlikely to postpone the presentation. One professor from the School of Languages and Comparative Literatures told the inquiry committee that Prof Pawar was "of course strict, sometimes stricter than necessary". But it was normal, the professor added.

Another assistant professor was asked by the committee members why the presentation should be postponed in the first place when the UGC guidelines mandate periodic reviews. "I told the committee that there was nothing wrong in giving 10 days to students to prepare if they are not ready. Now neither the student is around nor the presentation happened," she said.

A research scholar said Rubi had worried since the morning of April 1, the day before she was found dead. "I asked her what happened and she said she did not know if her presentation would be good or not," the scholar from Uttar Pradesh said.

During lunch time, too, Rubi was tense and was having food with a lot of things running on her mind. Around 5 pm, she went to her guide's room to sign the attendance registrar. When she returned, she sat with her head down and was fiddling with her phone. "Her face was red. I asked her what happened. As soon as I asked her about it, she ran out to the washroom. I followed her and saw she was crying looking in the mirror. That was the first time I saw her crying so intensely," the scholar said.

"When I called her name, she washed her face and started laughing. I pressed her to tell me what happened. She said she was just a little tense. I don't know how to tell," the scholar said.

Another scholar from Rajasthan said he saw Rubi standing in Prof Pawar's cabin in the evening, while he was talking to her. "Usually, PhD scholars are made to sit," he said.

But Prof Pawar said Rubi came to sign the attendance register and she did not come for discussion. "I had another student in my cabin. Rubi signed the register and left," he said.

Students said something happened on April 1 which triggered her.

SFI demands police secure CCTV footage from the cabin
Bekal police investigating the case said Prof Pawar's cabin does not have a CCTV camera. But Prof Pawar himself has confirmed that there was a camera. "I am not sure if the recording was happening. I am now on leave. I will come and check the local memory card," he said.

Meanwhile, the Students' Federation of India (SFI) has slammed the police for not securing the footage from the camera till now.

SFI leader Amal Azad said Rubi's suspected suicide was the second in 35 days. Nitesh Yadav (28), a second-semester student of the MEd programme and native of Ghazipur in Uttar Pradesh, ended his life in the hostel on February 25. In between, another student attempted suicide, said Amal Azad. "We had to lock up the Vice-Chancellor till 3 pm on the day Rubi died for the university to decide to appoint a counselling psychologist on the campus," he said.

He also criticised the committee's decision to recommend a CBI inquiry instead of calling for the CCTV footage from Prof Pawar's cabin. The Vice-Chancellor in charge Prof Baiju did not respond to calls made to his phone.

The SFI also slammed the police for not sharing the postmortem report with the family.

Dr Asharani said they needed to know the approximate time of death to perform the last rituals and find closure. "Despite several requests, the police have not shared the report," she said.

One police officer in Bekal said that the autopsy report did not mention the time of death. "But when we asked for it, the doctor gave another statement saying the death could have happened approximately eight hours before the body was found," he said, pegging the time around 2 am on April 2.

Dr Asharani said she found it hard to believe because Rubi was found dead in the same clothes she wore on April 1, and was wearing her wristwatch too. "Rubi usually changed her clothes after coming to the hostel and did not wear her watch in the night," she said.

The eldest sister said the siblings had planned a get-together on April 20 in their home at Salhepali. It was supposed to be Dr Asharani's wedding reception. "Never in our lives did we cut cake in our home. We had planned to do that too this time," said Nisha Patel.

But the phone call from the Central University of Kerala shattered their plans and lives.