Student commits suicide, blames senior for ragging

A 19-year-old student, studying in Sathyabama University in Chennai, who went home to Hyderabad during Deepavali, committed suicide at his house in Nizampet alleging “ragging” by one of his seniors in the institution, police said today. V Krishna Chaitanya, a second-year B Tech student, hanged himself by the ceiling fan at his house on Thursday night, according to the police. “Following a complaint from Krishna’s family members, the police has registered a case of abatement to suicide under section 306 of IPC and under relevant sections of Anti-Ragging Act,” officials said, adding that the case will now be transferred to a police station in Chennai.

Before resorting to the extreme step, Krishna purportedly wrote in his diary that he was committing suicide following “harassment” by one of his seniors, Shekhar, a third year student at his college, he said. The senior student used to forcibly take Krishna’s pocket money for his own expenses and also beat him up, the official said quoting from the diary. The suicide comes in the wake of a series of such incidents that have been occurring at alarming frequency in the city.

When contacted, a professor who is a part of Sathyabama University’s anti-ragging cell and who refused to be identified said, “We have not yet been informed about this particular incident.” The professor informed us that the college was shut due to the rains and they could not comment on this issue.”

Volunteers from the city based suicide helpline Sneha say that they receive 50 to 60 calls every day from depressed individuals and suicidal individuals of all age groups. Elangovan, a member of this team says, “Five to 10 per cent of our callers are students, from elementary school to senior students pursuing higher education. Knowing that we are dealing with very high risk cases, our team of volunteers follow up with these students and their parents to understand how he or she is faring.”

R Manoj, a clinical psychologist, from Mental Health and You, tells us, “Suicides are a growing social concern and not all attempted suicides are reported. The biggest issue is that our support systems are focussed on distressed people calling them, rather than a system where troubled people are proactively contacted by help groups.”