Seraj residents seek high-level probe

Residents of Seraj held a massive protest here today outside the office of the Superintendent of Police, Mandi, demanding a high-level inquiry into the suspicious death of BSc nursing student Anjana Thakur.

They raised a series of questions related to the death of Thakur, a BSc nursing trainee at Aroma College, Sundernagar, in Mandi district. The young woman had died under suspicious circumstances on October 23, and the protesters were demanding a judicial and high-level investigation into the incident.

Bhagat Ram, father of the victim, stated that her daughter died under suspicious circumstances and it was a murder and not an accidental death as stated by the police in its investigation. We got information that she fell from her hostel building and was rushed in a critical condition to medical college at Nerchowk in Mandi. From there, we took her to PGIMER, Chandigarh, and later to Max Hospital in Mohali. It was strange that if any person fell from a four-storeyed building, how could he/she get injury only on one spot, while the entire body was safe? This happened to my daughter, she got injury only on her head, while her entire body was safe, which indicated that it was a planned murder.”

“I gave a written complaint to the police and demanded the CCTV camera video footage of the hostel, but was told by the police that the CCTV cameras were non-functional. It is questionable why the CCTV cameras were dysfunctional. Is it a deliberate attempt to wipe out the evidence? So far, even FIR has not been registered in the case by the police. The motive of the protest by people in large numbers is to force the authorities concerned to conduct a fair inquiry in this case and nab the culprits,” he remarked.

Mahender Rana, a social activist and protester, said, “It was a murder like Kolkata hospital, where a young doctor was murdered a few months ago, which shook the entire nation. There were reports that liquor was found in the hostel room, where the victim was living. How this liquor reached the hostel, what were the hostel warden and college administration doing? It was a planned crime committed by those who have political shelter, but we will fight relentlessly to get justice for the victim.”

“We have requested the police to release forensic report without any delay. We also sought a case against the college management, administrative staff and the hostel warden for allegedly shutting off the CCTV cameras around the time of the incident. A memorandum was submitted in this regard,” he added.

“We urged the state government to conduct an inquiry in this case by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) under the jurisdiction of the High Court,” he remarked.