Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan sends letter to Nitish Kumar seeking probe into athlete’s suicide

|HT|

Amid allegations of foul play, Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Friday sent a letter to his Bihar counterpart Nitish Kumar seeking a comprehensive probe into the alleged suicide of the Indian Railways’ basketball player belonging to Kerala. She was found hanging in her apartment in Patna on Tuesday and her relatives alleged that her former basketball coach used to harass her and she was driven to death due to this. Her body was brought to her native place in Kozhikode district on Thursday for cremation. Later a suicide note written in Malayalam was also recovered from her flat in Patna.

“Her relatives told me that circumstances existed that could have led to her ‘suicide.’ They requested for a thorough probe and I request you to give directions for a comprehensive and fair investigation which can address the apprehensions of the player’s relatives,” the Kerala CM said in his letter to Kumar.

A Railway employee, the 23-year-old was working at the divisional railway manager’s office in Danapur for the last six months. Relatives said she had earlier filed a police compliant against the coach and later he used to harass her. “They also said the post-mortem was held even before her relatives and friends reached Patna. Her friends have also given a statement to the police against the coach,” said Kuttiadi MLA K P Kunahamad Kutty. “There are also reports that the coach allegedly grabbed her inappropriately and she reacted immediately. After she filed a complaint, the coach was rested but he used all opportunities to harass her, she told her mother recently. Later, he also filed a complaint with the Railways saying he was attacked for questioning her continued absence during coaching sessions,” one of her relatives said. Hailing from a poor economic background she was forced to take up a job with the Railways, he said adding her skills were honed at a young age by the sports division in Kannur.

She was a member of the Kerala team that won the Federation Cup in 2018 and later she was recruited to Railways through the sports quota and appointed in the East Central Railway.

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