Four days after 22-year-old Nithin Raj died in a case of suspected suicide, the principal of the Kannur Dental College, Anjarakandy, said that in the meeting held in college on April 10, Nithin denied sharing his teacher's contact number while availing the loan.

Dr Vinod Mony, the principal, spoke to the media on Tuesday afternoon stating that the meeting was convened on April 10 following a complaint received from Latha Sasidharan, Nithin's teacher. “The loan app threatened her demanding repayment, so she submitted a complaint along with proof,” he told the media.

Vinod said that during the meeting Nithin denied sharing the teacher’s phone number with the loan app. “When we asked, he said that he had given his father’s, mother’s and sister’s numbers. When asked what their names were, he revealed that his mother’s name was Latha, which was the same as the teacher’s name,” he said.

“Naturally, when the teacher heard this, she became very emotional,” he added.

Nithin, was found lying on a stone-paved area between the administrative block and the hospital building on the campus at around 1.30 pm on April 10. Investigations following his death revealed that he had taken a loan from an online loan app, the executives of which were allegedly harassing him for defaulting on the payment. The harassment reportedly extended to Latha as well.

According to Nithin’s brother-in-law, Asokan, the college had convened a meeting on April 10 to resolve issues related to the loan taken by the student online. The Chakkarakkal Police CI said that the police were yet to record the statements of the college authorities regarding the meeting. “Only after we take their official statements can we be sure of what actually occurred there,” he said.

Dr Mony also said that a six-member team is continuing the internal probe initiated by the college following Nithin’s death.

“The report is not yet ready. We have sent a show-cause notice seeking an explanation from them (Dr Ram and K T Sangeetha Nambiar, who were suspended following Nithin's death). They have been given five days to respond,” he added.

Speaking about why he had not acted on complaints that were earlier filed against the teacher, Dr Mony said he had joined the college only on December 18 and that the complaints had been filed before that.

“I was busy with university inspections, so I focused on that,” Dr Mony said when asked whether old files contained complaints against the teacher.