PARLIAMENT | Police have yet to conclude their investigation into the death of S Vinosiny, a 20-year-old Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) student who died in her room on campus last year.
Higher Education Minister Mohamed Khaled Nordin said this in a written parliamentary reply to a question about the case yesterday.
It has been over nine months since Vinosiny, who was in the fourth semester of her accounting and information system studies, died on May 21 last year. Her family suspected that she died from an electric shock.
“First of all, the Higher Education Ministry once again expresses our sympathy to Vinosiny’s family.
“The ministry would like to inform that her death is still under police investigation.
“So far, the ministry has not been informed about the result of the investigation and thus will not comment further,” Khaled, who is Kota Tinggi MP, said in reply to a question posed by V Ganabatirau (Pakatan Harapan-Klang).
Khaled said the ministry takes the welfare and safety of students seriously and they have taken several steps to improve the situation at all public university campuses following Vinosiny’s death.
This includes ordering all the institutions to review the safety of their premises and strengthen their management of building maintenance.
The ministry has also decided that periodical audits on building maintenance and student safety are to be done more often and the reports must be submitted to the ministry, he added.
It was reported last year that Vinosiny died a week after she returned to the campus in Sintok, Kedah.
According to the victim’s father, R Sivakumar, he received a call from UUM management at about 3pm on the day of the incident and was told that Vinosiny was found unconscious in her room.
He claimed that the caller was vague about what had happened and he was only told that his daughter had died after asking if there was any sign of life.
Sivakumar told Malaysiakini last year that his daughter’s body had obvious burn marks on her face and right hand with two of her fingers a purple-blackish colour when the doctor showed him her remains at Sultanah Bahiyah Hospital in Alor Setar, Kedah.
UUM has been accused of not being forthcoming on the circumstances of Vinosiny’s death. However, the university apologised to the family on May 31 last year and vowed full cooperation with the family to find out the truth.
The family also urged authorities in October to open an inquest into the incident after five months of waiting for an explanation on Vinosiny’s death. - Mkini
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