Hearing a thud, students ran out of exam hall

Sharanya, who attempted suicide at a City college on Thursday, is a well-versed dancer, highly popular among her friends on the campus.

Kartika Venugopal, a close friend of Sharanya, was writing the test, as were her classmates, when she heard a scream followed by a thud. The invigilator and students ran out of the classroom to find out what had happened.

“A girl whose face was covered was being lifted away by three people” said Kartika. It was only after the test, she came to know through her friends that the victim was Sharanya.

“I am still not able to digest that she did such a thing,” Kartika said.

Eye witnesses, in their statements to the police, have said that the invigilator had distributed question paper and answer sheets to the students.

As the test began, the invigilator reportedly found Sharanya was hiding some chits between the answer sheets and, was trying to copy from them. The invigilator snatched away the answer sheets and reprimanded her.

While the invigilator brought the matter to the notice of the vice-principal, who was supervising the conduct of the test, Sharanya followed the invigilator and started apologising for her act.

When the vice-principal too reprimanded her, she suddenly rushed out of the exam hall, climbed the parapet wall of the third floor corridor and jumped off from there. The invigilator on the second floor of the building, on the opposite block, saw her falling and screamed, the statements said.

Manoj, a classmate of Sharanya, who was also seated in the same room, corroborated the police version of the events. He told Deccan Herald that Sharanya had suddenly walked out of the room crying, minutes before they heard a thud.

Kartika said Sharanya is not the type who would get easily tense. There was nothing to suggest that she was stressed or tense ahead of the test. “Everything seemed normal,” she said.

Sharanya might have thought that the incident would damage her reputation of being a good student and, in the heat of the moment jumped from the third floor, she opined.

Her parents Shankaranarayana, a businessman and, Shilpa have been by her side since morning. They are totally shocked and are not able to speak. They are just thanking God for saving their daughter’s life, said a hospital source.