Two years gone, Roji Roy yet to get justice

KOLLAM: More than two years after the “suicide” of a 19-year-old girl who died in circumstances similar to that of engineering student Jishnu Prannoy, her deaf and dumb parents are yet to get justice. Roji Roy, a nursing student and the only daughter of her parents from Kollam, had committed suicide by jumping from KIMS hospital in Thiruvananthapuram in November 2014. Both Police and the Crime Branch have not yet registered any crime/FIR, which is a violation of a Supreme Court order of 2014. According to a Supreme Court order based on the Lalita Kumari vs. Govt. of U.P. in 2014, if there is a complaint received by a station house officer about a cognizable offence, the officer has no other option, but to register an FIR to investigate that crime by sending a copy to the Judicial Magistrate having jurisdiction over the police station.

But in the case of Roji Roy, even though the parents filed a complaint stating their suspicions over her death, the matter is still with the sub-judicial magistrate as it has been registered as a case of “unnatural death”, without registering the mandatory section 154(1) of the CRPC. The investigation faced several setbacks as four investigating officers were changed since the beginning. The hurt and homicide wing, which showed exceptional progress, was also changed and the case handed over to the economic offences wing which is cited as an illogical move.

Investigations had found that the girl was tortured on the previous night of her examinations. She was taken in a food carrier van to the nursing college’s office and harassed in front of other parents and students. The girl had shared her worry with friends over the torture, that “if they worry my parents, I won’t come back”. While there was a report by an officer of ACP rank on this, another report countering it was filed by the economic offences wing saying that Roji Roy committed suicide “without any reason” as she was “soft-hearted”, according to sources.

“There is a valid complaint by the parents which discloses a cognizable offence on her death. Although in the case of Jishnu Prannoy it has been charged, the same thing has not happened in the case of Roji Roy. Here a destitute girl, having deaf and dumb parents, will not commit suicide without any reasons, and those reasons point to the involvement of abetment of suicide,” Adv. C.V. Manu Vilsan, lawyer of the parents of Roji Roy, told DC.

Roji Roy was a second year B.Sc nursing student with the KIMS school of Nursing in Thiruvananthapuram. She allegedly jumped from the 10th floor of the North building of KIMS hospital on November 6, 2014at 12.30 pm and succumbed to injuries by 6.00 pm in the same hospital. The case prolonged even after the investigating officer filed a detailed report regarding the current status of investigation to the High Court in March last year. The case was first with the Medical College Police, transferred to Crime detachment ACP, Thiruvananthapuram City and later handed over to the CBCID.