JOIN USFIR against college officers after student's suicide
Several administrative officers of the Amrita School of Engineering have been booked for abetment to suicide and destroying evidence, a day after a final-year student jumped to his death from the college building.
Guttula N N K Sri Harsha, a student of electronics and communication engineering, allegedly committed suicide on Monday, days after a disciplinary committee of the college expelled him for protesting against water shortage in the hostel. The incident sparked outrage, with students accusing the college staff of wiping the bloodstains and deleting eyewitness footage before police reached the spot.
The Parappana Agrahara police registered an FIR against the college director Dhanraj Swami, associate dean S G Rakesh, hostel warden Bhaskar B L and seven other lecturers who were in the disciplinary committee that expelled Harsha. The FIR follows a complaint by Harsha's father, G Vijaya Bhaskar, who had incidentally come to the college to plead with the committee to reconsider his son's expulsion.
But no arrests have been made as yet as the investigation is still ongoing, said Isha Pant, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Southeast).
Hundreds of students have continued their protest and refused to budge until Mata Amritanandamayi Devi, the Hindu spiritual leader and the chancellor of Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, visits the college and gives an assurance that such incidents will not recur. The students also want an assurance that their complaints about the college administration will be addressed expeditiously.
In an effort to mollify the students, the college on Tuesday declared a condolence holiday for this full week. But students didn't appear enthused. A second-year student accused the college of trying to "dilute" the "appalling" situation by declaring the holiday.
"Not a single member of the staff has come up with a solution to our problems. We are not leaving this place until justice is done to our friend Harsha. We want our chancellor and founder Mata Amritanandamayi Devi to come and speak to us and give an assurance that such incidents will not repeat," the student told DH.
Earlier in the morning, a post-mortem on Harsha was conducted, after which the body was handed over to his father who has taken it to their hometown Visakhapatnam for the last rites.