Kasaragod nursing student's coma sparks bloody protests over police refusal to charge school

Kasaragod: Chaithanya Kumari (20), a third-year student at Manzoor Hospital & School of Nursing, is in a coma following a suicide attempt on Saturday, December 7. Her condition has sparked widespread outrage after her parents, Sadanandan and Ommana from Panathur, along with fellow students, have accused the school management of workplace harassment.

Students and parents shared the prison-like conditions in the 24-year-old school and hostel in Kanhangad. Still, the police's refusal to file a case against the management led to massive protests by student and youth organisations on Monday, December 9. The police brutally broke up these demonstrations by lathi-charging the protesters, with several students and leaders ending up in hospitals. Tuesday morning, Hosdurg police booked the warden of the hostel Rajani for wrongful restraint and using obscene words. "We booked her under Sections 126 and 296 (b) of BNS based on a statement from the student's mother," said Inspector Ajith Kumar.

In a bid to end the stalemate, Kanhangad DySP Babu Peringeth held talks with the nursing school's students, management, and student organisations. The discussions started at 5:30 pm and ended four hours later.

Coming out of the DySP's office at 9.30 pm, the eight students who held talks with the officer said they filed a complaint seeking an investigation into Chaithanya's attempted suicide. The management agreed to replace the hostel warden, they said. "And we will be going to Indiana Hospital tomorrow to assess her condition," said Aditya, one of the students.

Hosdurg Station House Officer Inspector Ajith Kumar P stated that the police successfully persuaded the hospital management to relax the stringent conditions imposed on the students. "The most important agreement was that the management allowed students to stay in off-campus hostels, provided they arrive at the school on time," said the inspector.

He said students complained that the management denied them food if they missed dining hours, restricted mobile phone usage to just two hours a week (on Sundays), and allowed them to go out with relatives only for two hours during weekends.

The nursing school offers general nursing and midwifery programmes with an intake of 35 students per batch. Babu P S, a parent from Rajapuram, said the students are denied common vacations during Onam and Christmas. "Only Christian students are allowed to go home during Christmas and Hindu students during Onam. They do not give vacation because they are running the hospital with these nursing students," he said.

Babu also said the school principal was merely a figurehead and would direct students to the office of the chairman (owner C Kunhamed) for every request. "The chairman would meet only one student at a time even if the demands were common. It is his way of intimidating the students," he said.

Another parent, who requested anonymity, said the police would not book the management. "Even the clock inside the DySP's office is sponsored by Manzoor Hospital," he said.

The Station House Office said the management agreed to allow students to use phones on alternate days. "If 70 students get to use the phone on Monday, the other 70 students will use the phone on Tuesday," the Inspector said. The management also agreed to increase the time with parents on weekends to three hours, he said.

'Warden's harassment, the reason'
Monday night, Chaithanya's father Sadanandan wrote to the SHO from the hospital in Mangaluru that his daughter tried to take her own life because "the management treated her extremely poorly". "My daughter had told many times that the hostel ward behaved harshly with her," wrote the farmer, seeking action against the management.

Inspector Ajith Kumar stated that Chaithanya had an exam on Saturday, after which she and the warden had an argument. Following the argument, she went to her room and latched the door. Her fellow students saw her attempt suicide and quickly broke down the door, he said. "I reached there and saw the hospital doctors working relentlessly to revive her and restore her breathing," he said. She was then transferred to Indiana Hospital.

On Sunday, the students sat on a sit-in protest demanding action against the warden. When the police refused to book him, student organisations took over the protest.

Around 10 am on Monday, CPM's Student Federation of India (SFI) took out a protest march to the hospital. The police came down on them with full force. Anuraj, the Kasaragod area president, and Abhichand Kayyur, the Cheruvathur area secretary, suffered head injuries in the lathi-charge. Abhinan Chattanchal, the district vice-president of SFI; Anurag K, the district joint secretary; Karthik Rajeev, the Trikaripur area secretary; and Immanuel P, district vice-president, were all injured and are admitted to a CPM-run cooperative hospital in Kanhangad.

Around 2.30 pm, the Congress's Kerala Students' Union and the Youth Congress took out their march to the hospital. "The police thrashed the SFI activists when they entered the hospital compound. The police charged at us before we reached the gate," said KSU district president Jawad Puthur.

Youth Congress state general secretary and Kasaragod District Panchayat member Jomon Jose was left bleeding after police hit his head with a baton. "We will be taking out a protest march to the DySP's office on Tuesday against the assault on our activists," said Jawad.

Around 3.30 pm, the RSS's student wing Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) took out the march, and its activists were also brutally crushed. Several ABVP activists were taken into custody.

Police said they do not have the provision to register an attempt to suicide case without a suicide note or statement from the victim. "We can book a harassment case if we get such a complaint from students. That is what we got in the night. We will proceed with that," said an officer.

The doctors at Indiana Hospital were also told to take Chaithanya's statement whenever she was in a position to talk.

BJP state secretary K Shreekanth, who was at the DySP's office, said the police's stubborn stance meant that they were instructed from the top not to act against the hospital management. The hospital's managing director, Samsuddin C, who was part of the talks, said some minor issues would be resolved internally. Regarding the warden, he said the hospital would conduct an internal inquiry, and if found guilty, the management would report him to the police. He denied allegations of oppression in the hostel and nursing school but acknowledged the need to look into students' grievances.