"Saif or Sanjay, we will not spare the guilty", said Telangana Minister K.T. Rama Rao on Monday in his first reaction to the suicide of a post-graduate medical student of Kakatiya Medical College due to alleged harassment by her senior.
Addressing a public meeting at Sodashapally in Hanamkonda district, he slammed the opposition parties for what he called politicising every small issue.
Rama Rao expressed his heartfelt condolences to the family of Dharavathi Preethi and assured them that the state government will stand by them.
"Whoever has done injustice to Dr Preethi, be it Saif, Sanjay or anyone else, we will not spare them. We will make sure that they are punished as per law," he said.
Warangal police have arrested her senior M.A. Saif who allegedly targeted Preethi with insulting comments, which believed to have led to the girl committing suicide.
Preethi, a first year student of the post graduate (MD) in the department of Anaesthesia at Kakatiya Medical College (KMC) in Warangal, succumbed at a hospital in Hyderabad on Sunday night, five days after she allegedly took a lethal injection.
Last rites of the 26-year-old tribal were performed at Girni Thanda in Jangaon district on Monday afternoon.
Warangal police on February 24 arrested Saif, a second year student in the Department of Anaesthesia.
Police said the targeted harassment of Preethi by her senior which could have driven her to attempt suicide.
Booked for abetment to suicide, he was also charged under the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and the Anti-Ragging Act.
Meanwhile, ministers E. Dayakar Rao and Satyavati Rathod visited Preethi's house and consoled her family. The ministers assured the family that the guilty will not be spared. They also assured the girl's family that the government will stand by them.
Dayakar Rao said while the state government has announced Rs 10 lakh ex-gratia to the family, he would give Rs 20 lakh on his behalf. He said the proposal to provide government jobs to Preethi's sister and brother was under consideration of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao.
The ministers also condemned the attempts by BJP and Congress to politicise the issue. (MSM/NewsGram)