Parents of trainee kabaddi player found dead at SAI hostel in Kollam seek probe
Thiruvananthapuram (PTI): Parents of a trainee kabaddi player, who, along with another athlete, was found hanging dead at a Sports Authority of India (SAI) hostel in Kollam, have demanded a thorough investigation into the incident.
Sandra A (18), a native of Chaliyam in Kozhikode district, and Vyshnavi V (15) of Muthakkal in Thiruvananthapuram district were found hanging in their hostel room on January 15.
Vyshnavi’s father, Venu, on Sunday told a television news channel that the family does not believe his daughter was in a situation to take her own life and demanded a comprehensive probe.
He said that around 6 am on January 15, he received a call from the person in charge of the sports facility asking him to reach Kollam without bringing the child’s mother.
According to Venu, when he reached the SAI facility, the gatekeeper tried to lock the gate, but Venu forced his way into the compound.
“For over one hour, they did not tell me what had happened to my child. After an argument, MP N K Premachandran reached the place and allowed me inside the building. Later, the Police Commissioner also arrived and permitted me to see my daughter,” he said.
Venu said Vyshnavi had contacted him around 10.30 am the day before the incident and told him that she had won a competition and wanted money to buy Sharjah Shake.
“We transferred the money. She contacted us again later that night. My daughter would not commit suicide. I am fully confident about that,” he said.
He further alleged that Vyshnavi’s body was found on the top floor of the hostel, though she was staying in a room on a different floor.
“My wife told me that Vyshnavi had asked her not to contact the former warden, as directed by the authorities. She was told that if we contacted the former warden, she would be sent out of the facility,” he said.
Venu also claimed that a suicide note recovered from the scene mentioned that the warden “knows everything”.
He said it was not clear whether the note referred to the current warden or the previous one.
Meanwhile, Sandra’s parents, Sindhu and Ravi, told reporters on Saturday that their daughter had frequently expressed distress about staying at the SAI facility.
They alleged that Sandra often described the hostel as a jail and was desperate to return home.
SAI has not yet responded to the allegations.
However, after the incident, the government-supported sports authority said in a statement that it was cooperating with the investigation and that a probe was underway.
Kollam City Police have constituted a six-member Special Investigation Team to probe the incident.
Police officials said statements of parents, hostel mates and schoolmates have been recorded as part of the investigation and that statements of officials at the sports facility would be recorded soon.
A detailed probe is underway to ascertain the circumstances that led to the deaths, an officer said.
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Screenwriter Salim Khan on ventilator support and stable, say doctors
Mumbai (PTI): Veteran screenwriter Salim Khan suffered a brain haemorrhage which has been tackled, is on ventilator support as a safeguard and stable, doctors treating him said on Wednesday, a day after he was admitted to the Lilavati Hospital here.
The 90-year-old, one half of the celebrated Salim-Javed duo which scripted films such as "Sholay", "Deewar" and "Don" with Javed Akhtar, is in the ICU and recovery might take some time given his age.
"His blood pressure was high for which we treated him and we had to put him on a ventilator because we wanted to do certain investigations. Now the ventilator was put as a safeguard so that his situation doesn't get worse. So it is not that he is critical," Dr Jalil Parkar told reporters.
"We did the investigations that were required and today we have done a small procedure on him, I will not go into the details. The procedure done is called DSA (digital subtraction angiography). The procedure has been accomplished, he is fine and stable and shifted back to ICU. By tomorrow, we hope to get him off the ventilator. All in all, he is doing quite well," he added.
Asked whether he suffered a brain haemorrhage, the doctor said, "Unko thoda haemorrhage hua tha, which we’ve tackled. No surgery is required.
As concern over Khan's health mounted, his children, including superstar Salman Khan and Arbaaz Khan, daughter Alvira, and sons-in-law Atul Agnihotri and Aayush Sharma, have been seen outside the hospital along with other well-wishers. His long-time partner Akhtar was also seen coming out of the hospital.
Khan, a household name in the 70s and 80s, turned 90 on November 24 last year. It was the day Dharmendra, the star of many of his films, including "Sholay", "Seeta aur Geeta" and "Yaadon Ki Baraat", passed away.
Hailing from an affluent family in Indore, Khan arrived in Mumbai in his 20s with dreams of stardom. He was good looking and confident he would make a mark in the industry as an actor. But that did not happen. And then, after struggling for close to a decade and getting confined to small roles in films, he changed lanes.
He worked as an assistant to Abrar Alvi and soon met Akhtar to form one of Hindi cinema's most formidable writing partnerships. They worked together on two dozen movies with most of them achieving blockbuster status.
Other than "Sholay", "Deewar" and "Don", Khan and Akhtar also penned "Trishul", "Zanjeer", "Seeta Aur Geeta", "Haathi Mere Saathi", "Yaadon Ki Baarat" and "Mr India".
