Raudha’s death: a father’s unanswered questions

Raudha Athif’s death was a sudden shock to the nation. The blue-eyed beauty’s sudden demise brought about many questions. Her father Dr. Mohamed Athif had the most questions. He says he was informed of her death around 1.30 pm on March 29th. He and Raudha’s family immediately left to Bangladesh. When he first saw her body, he noticed many irregularities.

Raudha on the cover of Vogue

“I inspected the medico-legal signs on Raudha’s body not only as her father but as a doctor with enough medical knowledge. I also did my medical studies in India and during my M.B.B.S at Bhopal Medical College I also studied and got trained in Forensic medicine & toxicology for 18 months as part my M.B.B.S course,” Raudha’s father said to Raajje.mv

“When I left mortuary I got enough preliminary findings to point that the death of my daughter points to a homicidal case. All our twelve members’ team saw the marks on her body. We all saw the so called “ligature mark”. Apart from this there were signs of manual strangulation with hand on her neck. The bruising caused by strangulation are clearly visible on her neck. We all saw the exact mark its color and appearance,” he added.

After the visit to the mortuary the team left for Raudha’s hostel. Even though all students agreed that they had forcefully entered the room, there were no such signs in the room. It was a small room. There were discarded scraps of vegetables on a cutting board. The food she cooked for the next day was still on the stove, covered. The mirror on her cupboard and broom were broken. A single box supported a broken bed; it could be related to the death or not. All this increased Dr. Athif’s suspicions.

Raudha's bed

Raudha's room

“I took a statement from one of her batchmates Ms. Seerath who was the first student in her block to find Raudha hanging. She told me that morning when she came to meet Raudha and found her room’s door was locked from inside and after knocking the door few times and when there was no response from inside she peeped through a gap (about 10mm) on Raudha’s room door and saw her hanging from the ceiling fan with a blue colored shawl,” he said.

Undamaged bolts on Raudha's door

“Then she screamed and started running to inform some other senior students and the warden and about some fifteen students gathered outside Raudha’s room (Room no 209) and forcefully broke the door and entered the room and loosed Raudha from the hanging noose and kept her on the bed. By that time Rajshahi Police also visited the room with some local media crew,” he reported.

Raudha's left overs from meal prep

Messy countertop from the pervious night's meal prep

Meal prepared for the next day

Dr. Athif is of the opinion that Raudha was not so weak hearted to commit suicide.

He shared additional details that gave credence to this. She had wanted to switch universities, move to Perth, Australia. Raudha had shared this with her aunt, via viber, which RaajjeMV has obtained. The family had also made plans to move her to Australia after the exams.

“She was doing very well in her college semester exams and even got top marks in some of the subjects. She was preparing for her first prof M.B.B.S exam and after completing her final exam 1st prof M.B.B.S we have all plan to transfer her to Perth, Australia for her medical education. Her paternal aunt Fathimath Lubna has made so many arrangements for her in this regard. Raudha has no emotional issues or health issues and she is a happy self-confident intelligent student who always look forward to work as a medical doctor,” Athif added.

Screenshots of the conversation between Raudha, her aunt

Screenshots of the conversation between Raudha, her aunt

If indeed her death was a suicide, then Dr. Athif said he needed answers to the following questions to believe that her death is suicide:

1. Why there was clear abrasion marks of manual strangulation on her neck?
2. Why the ligature mark is so different from that of a shawl and why its appearance not in line with that of an ante mortem hanging.?
3. When dribbling of saliva is a surest sign of death by hanging why it is now present.?
4. Why there was no mark of sign of the breakage of bedroom door either from inside or outside when every student who were present at the time of her death are saying they entered Raudha’s bedroom by breaking the door?
5. Why consent for post mortem is not taken from me when I was present there?
6. Why security camera footages missing on the day of the incident?
7. Her mobile phone IPhone 7 was used even after her death. Who had access to it? If nobody having access to it why her Instagram followers getting deleted?
8. When Raudha has no profile to fit for a case of suicide then why should anyone believe she commit suicide.?
9. Why the statement of the girl Seerath who gave some tablets mixed with juice to Raudha is not taken?
10. Why she prepared food for lunch that day if she plans to commit suicide?
11. When all the windows of her room is secured with iron grills how those who tried to enter the room when they found her hanging entered the room without breaking the door?
12. Why contradictive statements are issued by that security personal who were present at hostel that night and those who accompanied her to hospital that night?

In spite of the autopsy, these questions remained unanswered. If she had committed suicide, what was her reasoning? If she was in fact murdered, why was she murdered? And why the elaborate charade to make it look like a suicide?

What’s clear is that there is negligence in the investigation and the events following it.