Workplace harassment: UDF govt reopens prosecutor Aneeshya's suicide case for 'meaningful inquiry'

Kollam: Two-and-a-half years after Assistant Public Prosecutor Aneeshya S (41) ended her life, allegedly following sustained workplace harassment, the UDF government has ordered a fresh departmental inquiry into the case, reopening questions that her parents say were buried by an earlier probe.

​In an order issued on July 27, Director General of Prosecution T Asaf Ali directed the Director of Prosecution to conduct a "detailed and meaningful inquiry" into whether departmental lapses contributed to the death of the Assistant Public Prosecutor attached to the Munsiff-Magistrate Court in Kollam's Paravur. The Director has been asked to submit a comprehensive report "as expeditiously as possible".

​The order came after Aneeshya's parents, Prasanna and Sathyadevan of Paravur, submitted a representation on July 20 seeking a comprehensive, fair and independent inquiry into their daughter's death. They alleged that the initial departmental inquiry ignored crucial evidence left behind by their daughter, including a 19-page handwritten suicide note and several voice messages in which she described alleged workplace harassment, particularly from her superior, the then Kollam Deputy Director of Prosecution (DDP) Abdul Jalil, and her junior colleague, Assistant Public Prosecutor Shyam Krishna K R.

In their petition to the Director General of Prosecution, the parents argued that the first departmental inquiry, ordered during the previous LDF government's tenure, was conducted by Deputy Director of Prosecution (Headquarters) Adv K Sheeba, an officer of the same rank and cadre as Jalil.

​According to the parents, Sheeba failed to examine the most important evidence in the case - Aneeshya's suicide note and voice recordings explaining the circumstances that drove her to suicide. They said neither the note nor the recordings were included in the inquiry report.

​They also alleged that the inquiry largely relied on statements favourable to those facing allegations. "The suicide note is the most crucial piece of evidence in any suicide-related inquiry. Yet it was deliberately ignored," the parents said in their complaint, alleging that the report effectively shielded those named by Aneeshya.

​The report was subsequently used by the accused to secure anticipatory bail and avoid arrest, they alleged.

Harassment before death
Aneeshya was serving as Assistant Public Prosecutor at the Munsiff and Magistrate Court in Paravur. Family members and colleagues alleged she was subjected to workplace harassment from November 2023 onwards. On January 21, 2024, Aneeshya was found dead at her house. A week earlier, Jalil had shared a sexist movie clip in an official office WhatsApp group suggesting that female lawyers who challenge men would ultimately face disastrous consequences.

​Following her death, investigators recovered handwritten notes and a series of emotional voice messages in which she blamed Jalil and Shyam Krishna for creating the circumstances that pushed her towards suicide. Four days later, the then Director General of Prosecution T A Shaji ordered a fact-finding inquiry and directed Sheeba to submit a report within two weeks. Jalil and Shyam Krishna were meanwhile suspended from service pending inquiry.

​Sheeba submitted her report on January 31, 2024, after recording statements from family members, friends and the officers against whom allegations were raised. Subsequently, during the previous LDF government's tenure, the suspensions were revoked, and both officers were posted elsewhere in the department in the same ranks.

​Director General of Prosecution T Asaf Ali's latest order directing a "meaningful inquiry", issued within a week of receiving the parents' representation, marks the first official acknowledgement of their long-standing grievances over the handling of the case.