Raudha's Death: Father to file murder case

Father of Maldivian medical student and model Raudha Athif yesterday said he was going to file a murder case with a court.

Raudha, 21, a second-year student of Islami Bank Medical College in Rajshahi, was found dead in her college dormitory room on March 29. She was featured as a model on the cover of Vouge India last year.

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Earlier, her inquest, by police, and autopsy reports, conducted by a three-member medical board, said that she committed suicide by hanging.

Besides, the probe committee formed by the college authority found Raudha's death to be a suicide.

Meanwhile, Alamin Hossain, assistant commissioner of the Detective Branch of Rajshahi Metropolitan Police, said they with the help of two visiting Maldivian policemen probing Raudha's death were able to unlock her phone yesterday.

He said they got some important information which would help their investigation.

But the police official did not go into details.

Raudha's father Mohamed Athif, a physician by profession, visited Islami Bank Medical College at Nawdapara in Rajshahi city yesterday and met the college principal and members of the medical board that performed his daughter's autopsy. 

After the meeting at the room of the college principal, Athif said, “I went to them [college officials] with several questions and their answers could not satisfy me."

He said a member of the medical board claimed that the bruises on her neck, which appeared to be strangulation marks to the family members, were her birthmarks.

“This is a very ridiculous joke! I am her father who doesn't know her birthmarks?” he said and broke down in tears.

“I am going to file a murder case against unnamed persons," he said, adding that they were not familiar with legal procedures of Bangladesh and so they were hiring lawyers from Dhaka and Rajshahi to deal with the case.

Athif said even if the Maldivian police were going to call it a suicide, they should find out why she committed suicide. He said his daughter did not fit the profile of some one who could commit suicide.

“Claims of Raudha's father are not right," said Prof Mansur Rahman, of Barind Medical College and head of the medical board, who was present when the meeting was going on between Raudha's father and the college officials.

"Him being the father, he has emotions, but we three experienced professionals reported what we saw," he said.

Meanwhile, the college's Vice-Principal Prof MA Mukit Sarkar, who heads a five-member committee formed to probe Raudha's death, said they collected statements from 19 people, including Raudha's friends, interns and dormitory staff, and came to the conclusion that she had committed suicide.

"We are going to submit a report within a day or two," he said.

Laila Akter, an associate professor of the college and in-charge of the dormitory, said Raudha had died hours before her body was found.

She also said she saw that two of her close friends, who took down the hanging body, were screaming and telling her to save her, believing that Raudha was still alive.  

The two Maldivian police officials, who are in Rajshahi since April 3, also went to the college yesterday. They talked to the college authorities and visited Raudha's dorm room for the second time.

They declined to talk to the media as they were not authorised to, said Kamruzzaman Masud, academic officer of the college, quoting them.