Hailing from the Randamkutty locality[4] in Kilikollur, Kollam, Kerala, Fathima was raised in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia with her twin-sister Aysha[5] by her father Abdul and mother Sajitha.
The body was taken to the Royapettah Government Hospital for a post-mortem and a charge of unnatural death was filed with the Chennai City Police (Kotturpuram).
[15] Two days before her death, she told her father, who was working in Saudi Arabia at the time, through video chat that her name revealed her Muslim origin, which her mother was worried about.
[14] Her father alleged immediately after his daughter's death that he had evidence to prove that Fathima was being harassed by some professors in the department of Humanities and Social Sciences.
[14] My name itself is the problem, vappichiHer father said that Fathima had previously talked openly about being harassed by the professor she had blamed in her notes, calling him a "bad guy" and being tangibly scared about attending his classes; this fear was so great that she wasn't able to get her mark sheet from him, having her friend get it for her instead.
This screenshot blamed Professor Sudharshan Padmanabhan for Fathima's actions, and was widely circulated on social media as the alleged suicide note.
[13] In November 2019, The Central Crime Branch in Chennai concluded that there was no evidence against the professors alleged to have instigated her to take her life.
[25] After the first round of police investigation wherein it was stated that there was no evidence against the Professors, the matter was shifted to the Central Crime Branch.
[28] The students of Delhi University issued a statement demanding justice for Latheef and condemned the alleged caste and religious discrimination.
He also stated “It's time we avoid saffronisation of educational institutions.”[18] An autonomous student body at IIT-M, the Ambedkar Periyar Study Circle, published a statement condemning IIT-Madras' "brahminical hegemony".
[15] “My college is a hostile space that stinks of elitism, casteism, classism, and most notably Islamophobia,” said Alfiya, a Humanities student, claiming.
They also demanded setting up a Grievance Redressal Cell for each department and conducting an internal probe into the allegations made by Fathima's family.
[30] However, when the students met the director on 21 November, he told them the institute cannot form an internal probe committee as an investigation was already underway by the authorities.