4 min readThiruvananthapuramUpdated: Apr 12, 2026 07:59 PM IST
The death of a 22-year-old Dalit medical student has rocked Kerala, with allegations emerging that he had been repeatedly subjected to insults and humiliation by faculty members in his college about his caste, complexion, and his parents being daily wage labourers.
Nithin Raj R L, a native of Uzhamalakkal village in Thiruvananthapuram, died after a fall from a building at the Kannur Dental College campus in the Anjarakandy area of Kannur district on Friday. The first-year Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) student was rushed to the medical college hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries.
Police in Kannur have registered a case of unnatural death and begun a probe into allegations that he was insulted by teachers at the college. The family has alleged that foul play was involved in the death.
The management of the self-financing college on Sunday suspended a department head and an associate professor. The college also ordered a probe into the allegations.
The action comes after an audio clip, purportedly from Nithin, came to light on Sunday, in which it is alleged that he faced insults and harassment from the faculty. In it, Nithin is purportedly heard saying, “He (a teacher) openly insulted me, and I suffered to the maximum extent. My answer sheets were shared among all students in the classroom, pointing out certain spelling mistakes. Yesterday, while I was attending his class, he ridiculed my mother… After coming out of the staff room, he called me an idiot. I replied, ‘same to you’. The staff room is a place where we are subjected to gang attacks. He (the teacher) told me that if I spoke out, my hands and legs would be chopped off. I dared him to do it.”
Nithin’s sister, Nikitha, said her brother had been repeatedly subjected to insults over his complexion, caste and his parents’ occupation. “He had told me that the department head used to insult him by calling him a mad dog. He was insulted in the classroom. [The department head] made other students laugh when Nithin was insulted in the classroom. Other students, too, had complained against [the department head] in the past, but no action was taken against him. Nithin had talked to us two hours before he fell from the building. We suspect some foul play, and we want to know what happened to him. He had fallen not from his college building, but from the building of the medical college (which is on the same campus),” she said.
Nithin had joined the self-financing dental college in September last year.
Story continues below this ad
The death of the student has triggered widespread protests in the state. The State Human Rights Commission sought a report from the Kannur City Police Commissioner on the incident, and a member of the commission, K Baijunath, has directed the Commissioner to probe the allegations.
Congress Working Committee member Ramesh Chennithala called for a high-level probe into the death of Nithin Raj. “Police should take a serious note of the allegation that he had faced insults over caste and colour. The action against the faculty members should not be limited to suspension. The discrimination over caste in Kerala, which boasts about progressive and renaissance movements, is shocking. During the last decade of the LDF regime, attacks on SC/ST communities have increased manifold,” he said in a statement.
