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The daughter Lisha, husband Ben Barboza and son Junal of nurse Jacinta Saldanha arrive at the Houses of Parliament ahead of a meeting with MP Keith Vaz on December 10, 2012 in London, England. (GETTY)
Jacintha Saldhana would have never have committed suicide and her death should be thoroughly probed.
Click to see gallery of World says goodbye to Jacintha Saldanha
That is the firm belief and opinion of her former classmates, friends and colleagues, many of whom are based here in the UAE.
Police officers stand outside the King Edward VII hospital in central London on December 7, 2012. (AFP)
Jacintha, working as a nurse in the King Edward VII hospital received a call from two prankster Australian radio jockey she, in absence of a receptionist, passed on the call to the desired destination.
Mrs Saldhana put the call through to Duchess Kate’s ward, where an unnamed colleague gave details of the duchess’s treatment for severe morning sickness.
A recording of the conversation was broadcast on the 2Day FM station with the DJs gleefully boasting about their successful hoax Few days later Saldhana was found dead in in the nurse's accommodation under mysterious circumstances.
Jacintha Saldanha is in the centre of the photograph, with son Junal and daughter Lisha. (Junal's Facebook profile picture)
Grieving husband Benedict Barboza has revealed his fury to as he struggles to come to terms with the suicide of his beloved wife.
He is not alone.
People who knew her during her college days at the Father Muller’s School of Nursing in Mangalore described her as bold, smart and a very hardworking girl.
Nurse Jacintha Saldanha. (Getty)
Speaking to Emirates 24|7, Stella M, her colleague and classmate who now works at Welcare Hospital in Dubai says, “The news of her suicide was very shocking.”
“We were in the same batch (1984-89) at the nursing school in Mangalore.
“I still cherish a lot of memories of the good old student days. We were in touch on Facebook. The account has been deactivated after her death,” she says.
Describing Jacintha during her student days, Stella says, “She was very dedicated to her profession, very friendly with patients and devoted to the nursing profession.
“Moreover she was very bold and beautiful as well. She was not the type who would chicken out of difficult situations.
“Never had we imagined that she could take away her own life. She was not the type of person who would commit suicide,” she adds.
According to her friends, Jacintha worked in Mumbai for a while before working in Muscat and Kuwait for a few years. She then moved to the UK.
“We are all shattered. I have worked with her and was her junior in college,” says another Abu Dhabi-based nurse currently working in a government hospital.
“She was a very practical person, very clever and never a weak hearted. That is why her suicide is very suspicious.
“Friends of ours who know her grandmother in India are being told that she had never discussed anything about the hoax call in her last phone call just days before she died,” the nurse said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
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