Bengaluru dental student suicide: Harassed over skin tone, six lecturers sacked

Bengaluru: Investigators probing the suicide of a 23-year-old dental student in Bengaluru have found that she was allegedly subjected to repeated humiliation by her lecturers over her skin tone, dressing style and classroom attendance, police said on Tuesday.

The victim, Yashaswini, a third-year student at The Oxford Dental College in the Bommanahalli area, died by suicide on Friday.

Police said preliminary findings indicate that sustained verbal abuse by faculty members deeply affected her and may have driven her to take the extreme step.

According to the investigation, Yashaswini was allegedly insulted in class with remarks such as, “How can someone with dark skin become a doctor?” She was also humiliated over her attire and subjected to sarcastic comments by lecturers in front of her classmates.

Police said the harassment intensified after Yashaswini took one day’s leave due to an eye-related problem. When she returned to college, a lecturer allegedly mocked her condition, making derisive remarks about the eye drops she had used and questioning whether she had poured an entire bottle into her eye.

She was also allegedly denied permission to present a seminar and barred from handling a radiology case in the Oral Medicine and Radiology (OMR) Department, actions that investigators believe further aggravated her distress.

She was the only child of her parents, Parimala and Bhudevaiah, police added. According to her mother, Yashaswini had taken leave on Wednesday, citing eye pain.

When she returned to college the following day, she was allegedly humiliated in front of other students for not participating in a seminar, her mother alleged.

Case against 5 including principal

Following Yashaswini’s death, aggrieved students staged a sit-in protest outside the morgue, demanding action against those responsible.

Following the registration of an FIR at Suryanagar Police Station, the college management dismissed six lecturers from the OMR department. A complaint has been filed against five individuals, including the college principal, alleging harassment and caste-based abuse that led to the student’s death.

The sacked faculty members include senior lecturers Anmol Razdan, Shabana Banu, Faika Kolkar and Alba Dinesh, Reader Sindhu R, and Professor Sushmini Hegde, all from the Department of Oral Medicine and Radiology.

The incident triggered protests by Yashaswini’s family members and classmates, who gathered at the mortuary and raised slogans against the college management, demanding accountability.

Yashaswini’s mother, Parimala, has called for strict legal action against those responsible.

“My daughter dreamed of becoming a doctor and serving society. But the lecturers crushed her dreams. The justice my daughter deserves should send a strong message to all students,” she said.

Parimala described her daughter as a diligent, rank-holding student, adding that the public humiliation deeply affected her confidence.

“She was sensitive and feared that poor marks would upset me. She told me everything. Don’t they have children? No other child should face such injustice,” she said.

The incident was reported from Chandapura near Anekal, on the outskirts of Bengaluru.

-- With IANS inputs