Bengaluru college under lens for abetting student’s suicide
Bengaluru: Investigation has been initiated against a privately-run college for allegedly abetting the suicide of a harassed student, the police said on Wednesday.
“An inquiry has been initiated into the role of Amrita School of Engineering in the death of one of its students, Sri Harsha, who allegedly committed suicide on Monday by jumping from the seventh floor of the college building,” Ishan Pant, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Bengaluru south-east, told IANS.
The investigation is based on an FIR registered by the local police station on Tuesday under Section 201 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) against the school on a complaint filed by the 21-year-old Harsha’s father G. Vijaya Bhaskar, a resident of Vishakapatnam in Andhra Pradesh.
Bhaskar has named the college’s Associate Dean S.G. Rakesh and Director Dhanraj Swami as the two key officials responsible for his son’s suicide after he protested against insipid food and water shortage in the hostels along with other students.
“Our investigating team is questioning the co-accused and others in the college to find out what did they tell Harsha which allegedly provoked him to end his life, as he alone was not protesting, but other students staying on the residential campus were agitating too,” Pant said.
“Some students told the school’s disciplinary enquiry committee members that Harsha was one of the students who removed the closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras,” Pant said.
While quizzing Harsha, a committee member had threatened to expel him from the college and withdraw his placement with a multinational firm from campus recruitment recently.
The police are also looking into the protesting students’ complaint that the school’s officials had wiped off the blood stains from the spot where the victim fell and removed the video footage of a CCTV camera, which recorded the incident on Monday afternoon.
Pant admitted that the police were finding it difficult to control the agitating students and investigate the case on the campus.
The college is a part of Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetam, a string of educational institutions run by spiritual guru Mata Amritanandamayi, better known as Amma.