Former President of Bangladesh Hussain Muhammad Ershad has called for “a proper investigation” into the death of Maldivian student and model, Raudha Athif.

Dhaka’s Financial Times reports that the former President said that “a proper investigation is necessary to unearth whether the girl committed suicide after being raped or tortured”, and that ‘women are being oppressed amid the propaganda that they are being empowered’.

He further said that there “people are being made disappeared and picked up from their houses.”

“We read these in newspapers and forget those later. But the mothers who are losing children can never forget the incidents”, said Ershad.

Raudha was found dead in her dorm room at the women’s hostel of Islami Bank Medical College on March 29. Her body was found hanging from the ceiling with a scarf.

While the autopsy report has ruled her death a suicide, her family, and members of the public have questioned the credibility of the report, including the fact that the medical board that conducted the autopsy report included a doctor who worked at the college she was studying in.

Those close to her, including those at the college disputed that she suffered from depression, describing her as ‘happy’ and ‘full of life’.

In an interview to Bangladesh’s The Daily Star, Raudha’s father had told them that his daughter did not commit suicide.

“I have seen the body and it did not seem to be suicide, there are some suspicions,” he said.

Both Raudha’s mother and father are to have said that she would not have committed suicide.

Raudha 'the Maldivian girl with aqua blue eyes' became the first and only Maldivian to grace the cover of Vogue Magazine India, in October 2016.

A photo of her in the turqouise sea, taken by photographer Mohamed "Sotti" Shifaz had gone viral over two years ago, landing her one of the top spots in the Maldivian fashion industry.