Simmering demands come to the fore

Angry students threw stones at the institute building, broke flowerpots and raised slogans against the management for its “inhuman” approach towards the incident.
Members of the management and some students were engaged in hectic parleys, even as DCP (South) Sonia Narang bundled some students into a police vehicle and took them away.

Deccan Herald was privy to the discussions between the management and the students.

The management admitted it had ‘lost its face’ because of the incident. But the students felt the institute was not owning up responsibility for Pranay’s death.

The incident comes in the backdrop of a call for setting up a students’ council to resolve certain issues.

Taking advantage of the situation, the fourth-year engineering students demanded early elections reportedly promised by the management this year.

The students also objected to the college selling laptops at a high price, and the Rs-1,000 fee charged for using laptops on the hostel premises.

However, a few dissenting voices prolonged the discussions by appealing to the students not to trivialise the death of Pranay, and use the occasion to attack the management.

Vinamra Sharma, a close friend of Pranay, urged the students demand an apology from the management for “humiliating” Pranay by dragging his body on a bedsheet from the hostel. An appeal by Aaisha, Pranay’s cousin, turned the crowd emotional. It was decided not to press for any demand for the next 24 hours.

Aaisha sought to know why Pranay was traumatised and pressured by the college. She was one of the first few people to see Pranay hanging from the ceiling in his room.

Students rubbished rumours flashed by a section of the media that Pranay was a drug addict and had committed suicide due to a failed love affair.

PES group of institutions director D Jawahar said: “We can only hope to move forward from this incident and ensure that such things do not occur again.”

Student leaders also proposed that the ground or any other place on the campus be named after Pranay. The talks were inconclusive and the institute declared a holiday on Wednesday to defuse tension.