A professor who used to educate the victim at a school in Kerala has been charged with aiding in the suicide of a first-year student at a private university in this city. Agin S. Dileep, a 22-year-old student from Kerala who was enrolled in the Lovely Professional University’s (LPU) Bachelor of Design program, made the drastic decision on Tuesday. Other students staged a protest on campus as soon as the news of the student’s suicide spread.
On Wednesday, Phagwara police registered a case under section 306 (abetment to suicide) of the Indian Penal Code against a professor at the National Institute of Technology, Calicut (NIT-C), a senior police official said. Additional DGP (Law and Order) Arpit Shukla said the case was registered on the basis of a complaint by the victim’s father and the suicide note left behind by him. Shukla said the victim was a student at NIT-C for four years but was rusticated as the professor allegedly had a grudge against him. Dileep then took admission at LPU but committed suicide on Tuesday by hanging himself owing to mental stress, he said. Shukla said that an SP-level panel will investigate the matter fairly and thoroughly. Phagwara SP Mukhtiar Rai will conduct the probe under the supervision of DIG Jalandhar Range B. Bhupati and SSP Kapurthala Navneet Singh Bains, he said.
Shukla said that an SP-level panel will investigate the matter fairly and thoroughly. Phagwara SP Mukhtiar Rai will conduct the probe under the supervision of DIG Jalandhar Range B. Bhupati and SSP Kapurthala Navneet Singh Bains, he said.
When questioned about the suspected suicide of a female student at LPU ten days prior, he said that the incident will be investigated. He also denied using a lathi on students who were protesting Dileep’s apparent suicide on campus on Tuesday night, but he did confess that “moderate force” was employed to get them to go back to their dorms. As part of the demonstration, students—including female students—came out of their residence halls and chanted, “We want justice,” as university security officers attempted to calm them down. The students sought an investigation into the incident that was impartial and open. In addition to Dileep’s handwritten suicide letter, Shukla claimed there were two more messages in which the victim gave “personal reasons” for committing the heinous deed. The father and brother-in-law of the victim reached here on Wednesday and identified the handwriting of Dileep as well as his body. With tears in his eyes, the victim’s father said he had told everything to the police and proper procedure was being followed. He said he talked to his son at 1.30 pm on Tuesday and he sounded normal but heard the shocking news of his death around 6 pm. “My son was not allowed to clear four exams by the professor at NIT Calicut,” he alleged. “I couldn’t make out on the phone that the matter was so serious,” he said.
According to Senior Medical Officer Dr Kamal Kishore, the post-mortem examination was carried out by a medical board. LPU had expressed their sadness over the regrettable event. “The police’s early inquiry and the suicide note’s content indicate that the deceased had personal problems. “The University mourns the loss of the student and sends its sympathies to the deceased family,” LPU stated in a statement posted on its Twitter account. “The University is providing full support to the authorities for further inquiry.” The incident occurred shortly after protests over student claims that a hosteller had taken multiple unpleasant films of female students in the communal restroom at Chandigarh University in Mohali sparked recent demonstrations there.
