The suspected campus suicide of R L Nithin Raj, a first-year student at the Anjarakandy Dental College in Kannur district, on Friday (April 10, 2026), has caused a public outcry and raised questions about casteism in classroom interactions and student-faculty relations in higher-education campuses, including professional colleges, despite constitutional protections against social discrimination.
Kannur dental college student death: Audio clip surfaces; family alleges harassment
Nithin Raj’s body was brought to his rented house at Uzhamalackal in Thiruvananthapuram early on Sunday (April 12, 2026). An audio clip suspected to be of the student narrating the humiliation, he allegedly faced from some faculty members and classmates, surfaced on social media.
The State police are examining the veracity of the voice message. The Chirakkal police have registered a case of unnatural death. According to police, Nithin Raj had died after a fall from the college’s third floor.
Meanwhile, the dental college authorities have suspended two faculty members, Dr M K Ram and K T Sangeetha Nambiar, pending an enquiry in connection with Nithin Raj’s death.
