SRMC student hangs self on IIT-M campus

On information, police reached the spot, recovered the body and sent it for post-mortem examination to Government Royapettah Hospital. Preliminary inquiries revealed that the girl, Harini, 21, a final year student of Sri Ramachandra Medical Centre SRMC, Porur, might have taken the extreme step after her parents refused to grant her permission to pursue a course in Singapore. 

However, no suicide note was recovered from the spot. Police said that Harini lived with her parents and younger sister in the quarters on the IIT campus as her father Madheswaran was a junior superintendent in the computer section. On Thursday, while the parents left for Salem to attend a relative’s marriage, Harini stayed back with her younger sister, who is a class 12 student of Vanavani school. 

“Around 1.30 pm, she dropped her sister at school and returned home. When Harini’s sister came back from school around 5:30 pm and knocked the door of the house, there was no response for a long time. 

Presuming that Harini was asleep, her sister waited for nearly one hour at the entrance of the house itself. After this, the sister grew suspicious and alerted her neighbours. When they tried to call Harini through the window, they were shocked to find her hanging from the ceiling fan. Immediately then alerted us about the girl’s death,” a police officer said. 

Police further added that Harini was in her final year and was looking for prospective courses aboard and had insisted on attending one in Singapore. However, her parents said she could continue studies, but would not be allowed to travel abroad for it. 

“We believe this must have upset Harini following which she must have taken the extreme step,” the officer said.  The police are probing in other angles also. 

“Harini seems to have had a relationship and we found a text message on her phone which was sent by a male friend. As per the message, he was not happy with her being friendly with other men,” an officer said.