Kannur, July 20, 2026
In a major breakthrough in the investigation into the death of dental college student Nithin Raj, the Crime Branch on Monday arrested the case’s prime accused, Dr M.K. Ram, bringing to an end months of evasion that had drawn sharp public criticism and judicial censure.
He was taken into custody from Kodagu (Coorg) in Karnataka and brought to the Crime Branch office in Kannur, where he is being questioned.
On April 10, Nithin Raj R.L., a 22-year-old dental student at Anjarakandy Dental College in Kannur, died after a fall from the fifth floor of the college building. The son of a daily-wage labourer in Thiruvananthapuram, he had secured a BDS seat after repeated attempts at the NEET examination and joined the college in September 2025.
Raj was found critically injured on the campus in the early afternoon and was later declared dead at Kannur Medical College Hospital.
Although initially described as an unnatural death, the incident took a serious turn.
Family members and fellow students alleged sustained caste-based harassment by faculty members.
Following these accusations, the college suspended two faculty members on April 11, Dr M.K. Ram, Head of the Department of Oral Pathology, and K.T. Sangeetha Nambiar.
Sangeetha is presently out on bail.
“The questioning is going on and at the appropriate time, we will give you all the details,” said the probe official to the media on Monday morning.
The arrest followed a closely guarded operation based on Intelligence that Ram was hiding at a plantation in Kodagu.
With the assistance of the local police, the Crime Branch team crossed the state border and carried out the raid that led to his arrest.
Investigators said Ram had altered his appearance by growing a beard while remaining in hiding.
The breakthrough came after the Supreme Court rejected Ram’s anticipatory bail plea, following which he allegedly went underground.
Earlier, the investigating team had travelled to Chittoor in Andhra Pradesh after receiving information about his whereabouts.
Although they traced the location where he had been staying, Ram managed to flee before the police arrived.
The Crime Branch is now probing whether he received assistance from local contacts and others while absconding.
The prolonged delay in arresting the accused had triggered widespread criticism from the victim’s family, student organisations and the public.
Allegations were also raised that Ram’s alleged links with influential political and administrative figures had enabled him to evade arrest, a charge repeatedly highlighted by Nithin Raj’s family and the Action Council formed in support of the victim.
The case itself gathered national attention after the Supreme Court, while rejecting Ram’s plea for anticipatory bail, made severe observations on the alleged conduct of the accused.
The Crime Branch is expected to seek Ram’s custodial interrogation after producing him before the court. Investigators hope the questioning will reveal who helped him evade arrest and shed further light on the sequence of events that allegedly culminated in Nithin Raj’s death.
“Finally we are happy that the powerful person on the run has been finally arrested. We will get justice only after the punishment is handed to him,” said Nithin’s sister Rahkee.(Agency)
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