On February 20, Dr Dharavath Preethi, 26, first-year PG student of Kakatiya Medical College (KMC) in Telangana's Warangal, is said to have opened up to her family about the alleged harassment she was facing at the hands of her senior, Dr Mohammed Saif. Preethi, who is undergoing treatment at Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences in Hyderabad, was found unconscious in the staff room of MGM Hospital while on duty in the early hours of February 22. On Friday, police arrested Saif, a second-year MD student in the same anaesthesia department as Preethi, on the charge of abetment of suicide, besides invoking sections related to ragging and those under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. While Preethi is suspected to have injected herself with a muscle relaxant – part of the emergency kit for anaesthetists – police are waiting for the toxicology examination report. Preethi's father D Narender, an ASI with the Railway Protection Force of South Central Railway, said, “She called and broke down on the phone. I called up officials of Matwada Police Station (which has jurisdiction over KMC) and they went and met the college officials the following morning. They told me that the principal and the hospital superintendent had met Preethi and Dr Saif separately, counselled them and told Dr Saif to stay away from my daughter. All of a sudden, I received a call that she was in ICU.’’ Narender says Preethi has always been a hardworking student and that it's rare for girls from their Banjara (ST) community to make it this far. “When she got her MBBS seat a few years ago, it was a dream come true for our family. There are very few in our Banjara-Lambada community, and definitely not in our family, who have reached that level of education. Most girls don't even dream that far, but Preethi always aimed high. I have studied only up to Class 12 but my wife and I worked very hard to provide everything to our children,” said Narender, who is originally from Jangaon but settled down at Uppal in Hyderabad many decades ago. Preethi's brother D Vamshi, 22, a mechanical engineer who is pursuing MBA, said his parents were determined that the four siblings got good education. “Preethi is the youngest of my three sisters. My eldest sister is a software engineer, my second sister works with the CBSE and Preethi not only did her MBBS but got a PG seat too. There's no one in our extended family who has reached this far, so they were all really proud of the four of us,'' said Vamshi. Preethi, who completed her MBBS from Kamineni Medical College in Nalgonda, secured a PG seat at KMC and joined duty on November 20 last year. According to her colleagues Preethi and Saif clashed early on as she questioned the campus “culture” of juniors being “bossed around” by senior students. Preethi's alleged suicide bid has left the campus divided. On Friday, while a few first-year PG students held a protest at KMC alleging that juniors who do not conform to the “tradition” of being deferential to seniors end up being harassed, others said such interactions between doctors of senior and junior batches were commonplace. Dr Saif used to pick on Dr Preethi over her work, almost on a daily basis. When she started questioning him, he started targeting and insulting her by taking photos of her case sheets and posting them in chat groups that had both junior and senior PG students. That was humiliating,’’ said a first-year student. Junior students complained of seniors having a say on everything from their duty roster to 'rest timings'. “They even have to ask for permission to go to the washroom. It's humiliating for a female student to seek permission from a senior male to go to the washroom. Why should she have to do that?’’ said a first-year student. Talking about the “toxic’’ culture in college, another student said, “The seniors usually take complaints about harassment from juniors lightly because they have gone through the same grind themselves. In fact, Dr Preethi had spoken to a senior PG student hours before she was found unconscious, but the student counselled her and said things will be fine once she becomes a senior herself,’’ said another student. Many others have a different opinion. On Friday, KMC doctors were seen holding placards that read “Pray for Preethi, Stand with Saif”. Earlier, the Telangana Junior Doctors Association issued a statement extending support to Preethi’s family while condemning the allegations against Saif as false. “Anesthesia department comes under critical care and even minor mistakes are not forgiven. Seniors sometimes have to be stern with juniors and pull them up for mistakes, but it is never with the intention of harassment,’’ said a second-year student.