Crime Branch arrests Dr M.K Ram, former head of the Dental Anatomy Department of Kannur Dental College, from Karnataka
\| Photo Credit: ANI VIdeo Grab

Kerala Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala on Tuesday ordered the State Police Chief, Ravada Chandrasekhar, to conduct a departmental inquiry into the reasons that resulted in Monday’s “flawed arrest” of Dr M.K. Ram, former head of the Department of Dental Anatomy of the dental college at Anjarakandy, Kannur, in connection with the death of BDS student R.L. Nithin Raj in April.

The State’s case was that Dr Ram and another faculty member, Dr K.T. Sangeetha Nambiar, were “complicit” in the student’s death allegedly due to caste shaming in the classroom and also “inquisitorial staff-room questioning” centred around an unredeemed loan-app debt. The Crime Branch had earlier arrested Dr Nambiar, who the court later enlarged on bail.

However, Dr Ram’s arrest was delayed and, subsequently, the Crime Branch declared him an absconder and issued a lookout notice to secure his custody. The law enforcement’s delay in arresting the suspect in the socially and politically sensitive case drew flak from the High Court last week, following which the Crime Branch secured Dr Ram’s custody, supposedly from Coorg, Karnataka, on Monday.

However, the Thalassery Principal Sessions Court ordered Dr Ram’s summary release and slammed the Crime Branch for failing to follow arrest procedure and norms laid down by the Supreme Court.

Political embarrassment to UDF

Dr Ram’s release had come as a major political embarrassment for the United Democratic Front (UDF) government, which, when in the Opposition, had accused the then ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) dispensation of seeking 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.

Nithin Raj’s family had also expressed dissatisfaction with the turn of events and communicated their distrust in the current Crime Branch team investigating their ward’s death.

Officials said Mr Chennithala has ordered Inspector General of Police, Ajitha Beegum, to rejig the investigation team and hold to account the officials responsible for the legal fiasco.

Nithin Raj’s death had caused a public outcry and 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 the then LDF government on the defensive.

Published - July 21, 2026 03:05 pm IST