Death of Kannur dental student Nithin Raj: Kerala govt forms SIT to ‘further probe’ case
Kerala Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala on Monday (July 20, 2026) constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to “further probe” the death of BDS student R.L
Kerala Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala on Monday (July 20, 2026) constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to “further probe” the death of BDS student R.L. Nithin Raj at Anjarakandy Dental College in Kannur in April, allegedly due to caste shaming and inquisitorial questioning by members of the faculty. Mr Chennithala’s order comes hours after the Kerala Crime Branch police arrested the main suspect in the case, Dr M.K. Ram, former Head of the Dental Anatomy Department at the Kannur college, from Coorg in Karnataka. Ajith Beegum, Inspector General of Police, Crime Branch, will head the SIT, which would cover “overlooked aspects of the case”, including the possible role of other faculty members, in the Dalit student’s death. Nithin Raj’s father, a daily-wage worker, called on Mr Chennithala at his office and expressed relief at the arrest of Dr Ram.
The Supreme Court and the Kerala High Court had earlier rejected Dr Ram’s plea for anticipatory bail, mounting pressure on the police to arrest him. Last week, the High Court had expressed dissatisfaction with the Crime Branch for not securing Dr Ram’s arrest in a case that had shaken Kerala’s conscience and prompted a painful public reckoning of the often understated but pernicious social and economic discrimination in educational spaces. Nithin Raj’s death also triggered a bipartisan political demand for the enactment of a law on the lines of the proposed Karnataka’s Rohith Vemula (Prevention of Discrimination, Exclusion or Injustice) (Right to Education and Dignity) Bill, 2026, in Kerala. As many as 52 Dalit and Adivasi organisations, including a faction of the Kerala Pulayar Maha Sabha (KPMS), had called for a dawn-to-dusk hartal in Kerala under the aegis of the Justice For Nithin Raj Action Council, to protest against what they claimed was an entrenched attempt by the police and college authorities to save the suspects in the case, putting then Left Democratic Front (LDF) government on the defensive.
The United Democratic Front (UDF), then in the Opposition, had sought to put the LDF in the dock by alleging that the police had sought to obfuscate the “stark Dalit harassment element” in the case by spreading the “misleading narrative” that harassment from predatory loan sharks offering instant credit over mobile phone applications had caused Nithin Raj to take his own life after being hard-pressed to redeem his debt. Subsequently, the police arrested a few operators of a Noida-based digital instant loan platform that had loaned Nithin Raj ₹14,000 in December 2025. According to Nithin Raj’s family, the student had availed of a high-interest loan for his mother’s medical expenses. However, matters came to a head when the company contacted Nithin Raj’s teachers, which resulted in the student being summoned to the principal’s room for questioning in the presence of other faculty members.
The BriefWire