When 26-year-old Neethu called her father Mohan on the evening of November 3, 2020, he says she sounded happy, discussing a wedding alliance for her younger sister. But that was the last time that the Thiruvananthapuram native talked to his daughter. Hours later, he received a call from Neethu’s in-laws saying she had died by suicide.
Till date, Mohan and his family do not know what unfolded on the night of November 3, which made Neethu take her own life. Though the death was ruled a suicide by the local police, the family still had suspicions and has now filed a complaint with the Kerala police chief asking for a probe.
Neethu, who got married to Maranalloor native Deepu in 2016, lived with her three-year-old child and in-laws – her husband’s father, mother and grandmother, while her husband works in Qatar.
As per Neethu’s post-mortem report, the “findings are consistent with death due to hanging”. But what raised her family’s suspicions is the alleged varying statements of her in-laws and a bruise that was allegedly present on Neethu’s lower back.
According to her family, Neethu’s body had a bruise mark on her lower back. “This was mentioned to me by the Revenue Divisional Officer (RDO) who was present during the inquest. The officer had asked me if she had any back issues. When he said there was a bruise, I asked if there was something suspicious, but he said no. The Maranalloor station police officials also rubbished my suspicions when I cited the RDO’s remark,” Mohan tells TNM.
He also alleges that there is suspicion about what happened on the night Neethu died. As per Neethu’s in-laws, she was trying to feed her child at 4 pm and went inside her room as she got angry that the child was not eating. At 10.30 pm, her husband called his father asking him to check on Neethu since she was not responding to his calls. It was then that the family checked and saw her dead in the room, says Mohan.
“Our question is why did the family not try to check on her before 10.30 pm? Why did they not even call her for dinner till that time?” asks Mohan.
He also states that neighbours saw Neethu watching television inside the house at around 8 pm. “To some neighbours, her in-laws said Neethu went to her room by 8.30 pm. Their statements are differing,” Mohan says.
Notably, the family received the post-mortem report only in February, two months after Neethu’s death.
“We will soon be filing a petition in the Kerala High Court. We want to find out what happened to our daughter,” says Mohan.