Death of Fathima Latheef

Fathima Latheef (4 June 2001 – 9 November 2019) was an Indian teenager from Kollam, Kerala, raised in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. She enrolled as a first-year student in the five-year integrated humanities MA programme at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras, beginning her studies on 29 July 2019. She had also been accepted to Banaras Hindu University but chose IIT Madras at her mother's urging. Her parents later said she found the campus atmosphere oppressive.

On 9 November 2019, Fathima was found hanging in her hostel room, discovered by the hostel warden around noon. Authorities stated she was believed to have attempted suicide the previous night. Her family was notified around 11 a.m., and a case of unnatural death was registered with the Chennai City Police (Kotturpuram). The body underwent post-mortem at Royapettah Government Hospital. Students at the scene alleged that in the absence of police, staff members entered and investigated her room before it was properly secured.

Two days before her death, Fathima had told her father, over video chat, that her name revealed her Muslim identity, which her mother worried about. Following her death, her father alleged she had been harassed by professors in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, saying she had described one professor as a "bad guy" and was afraid to attend his classes. Her family said they retrieved a suicide note from her phone naming three professors, including one identified as Sudarsan Padmanabhan, and alleged caste and communal discrimination by teachers and students on campus.

An inquiry into the matter noted that Fathima had scored 13 out of 20 in an Internal Assessment in Logic, topping the class, and had sought a review of her marks; the professor she later named had been asked to meet her on the Monday following her death. The Forensic Department reportedly confirmed the notes found on her phone and tablet were authored by Fathima and not altered by others.

In November 2019, the Chennai Central Crime Branch concluded there was no evidence against the professors named. Fathima's family, along with a delegation of 41 Members of Parliament, petitioned Union Home Minister Amit Shah for a fair investigation, and the case was forwarded to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in November 2020. The CBI registered its own FIR based on the Tamil Nadu police FIR. The CBI ultimately filed a final report concluding there was no evidence against Professor Sudarsan Padmanabhan or the other two professors, closing the case as a death by suicide attributed to homesickness and reported psychological issues.

The case drew public reaction, including statements from Delhi University students, Tamil Nadu politician MK Stalin, and IIT Madras's Ambedkar Periyar Study Circle, which alleged discrimination on campus. Students held a hunger strike on 18 November 2019 demanding a mental health survey and grievance redressal mechanisms, some of which the institute agreed to implement.