Indu Antos, promising student and a keen violinist, painter and poet, was 16 when she died after being ragged in her college in August 1998.
Nine years have gone by and Indu’s parents haven’t got justice against people who had harassed and traumatized her. Indu’s father C L Antos was a management consultant but now all his time is spent fighting in courts and her mother is still in shock. Indu Villa in Chalakudy town of Kerala is still in mourning.
Indu studied in the Class XI in Mumbai's prestigious Sophiya College. Her parents got a call on August 4, 1998 that their daughter had died after falling off the third floor of the college hostel.
Indu had been in the college for 14 days but in that short period she had written home that she was being abused and harassed by her seniors every day. C L Antos says Indu’s letters mention that she was forced to dance naked, smoke, take drugs and take part in “sexual perversions”.
“She complained and on her behalf I took up this matter with the authorities twice or thrice. That was a mistake. After I complained, Indu was summoned in front of the principal. The people Indu had accused—Melissa and company—of ragging threatened her. That day Indu called me and said she was ready to leave the college,” says C L Antos.
ndu last called home on August 3 and a day later she was dead. Sophia College, which has the backing of the Church, said it was a suicide but an autopsy confirmed she had 27 injuries before death.
Indu’s diary says Melissa D’Souza, a final year B.Sc. student, and Greta Collasco, a Class XII student, had ragged her. The High Court accepted as Indu’s diary as her dying declaration but that didn’t lead to arrests. C L Antos’s only victory was that the court ruled that Indu was murdered.
“Society has made us orphans; Sophia College has made me an orphan. She was the light of my family and now she is gone,” says C L Antos.
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