SHC requested to order judicial inquiry into student’s death at hostel

Hyderabad District Bar Association writes letter to SHC chief justice

HYDERABAD: As the conclusive cause of death in the case of Sindh University (SU) student N* eludes the police, the Hyderabad District Bar Association has requested the Sindh High Court (SHC) to order a judicial inquiry.

Alternatively, the letter, which is addressed to SHC Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, suggests that an honest police officer of the rank of deputy inspector general (DIG) should be assigned the probe.

"Some of our bar members ... visited the place of incident but they found that without prior inquiry or full-fledged probe, [the] administration of the university and the police [are] observing it [death] as [a] suicide," reads the letter, dated January 3 and signed by Advocate Imdad Ali Unar, the general secretary of the bar.

On January 1, N's body was found hanging from the ceiling fan in the room of her hostel. She was a final-year student in the Sindhi department. N, 26 years old, hailed from the Kamber-Shahdadkot district.

The incident happened during winter vacations. The hostel's provost, Anila Soomro, told The Express Tribune that there were only three girls in block A of the undergraduate hostel at that time. Two of them were staying in a single room, which was several rooms away from N's room.

According to Soomro, around 1,600 female students are provided accommodation at three girls' hostels in the SU.

The letter states that SPP Jamshoro Captain (retd) Tariq Wilayat has been given a house in front of Marvi Hostel and Vice-Chancellor House, adding that investigation of the 'murder' cannot be properly conducted especially in the presence of the SSP.

The letter also pointed out that male staff is posted at the female hostels in SU and that, despite availability of funds, closed-circuit television cameras have not been installed. "There is grave apprehension that material evidence would be vanished and tampered."

Meanwhile, a group of civil society representatives also demanded judicial inquiry of the incident. "[The] family of N has reposed no confidence in police investigation and reports of Sindh University, Jamshoro," read a statement issued by the Sindh Human Rights Defenders. The group has also offered moral and legal support to the family if they opt for legal recourse.

The Jamshoro SSP told the media on Tuesday that the initial post-mortem report pointed towards suicide as N's neck bone was broken in a way that is typical of suicide. He added, however, that the police are taking help from her mobile phone records in the investigation, hinting that the police might come up with some revelations in the case.

A*, the girl's brother, has rejected the police's stance of suicide, arguing that his sister was a brilliant student who faced no emotional or psychological problem in her personal or family lives. He has also demanded an impartial and high-level inquiry into the case.

*Names withheld to protect identities

Published in The Express Tribune, January 5^th, 2017.