Engineering student's death: Mother receives son's body

Family refuses to buy suicide theory, says Ranjan was murdered

Life dealt a cruel blow to Alok Ranjan’s mother on Mother’s Day. She saw the body of her dead son on the day.

As the family of the engineering student arrived in the City on Sunday, his mother went hysterical upon seeing the disfigured body of her son. To say that she was traumatised would be an understatement. Overwhelmed with motherly love, she embraced her son’s corpse and, in a hysterical tone, beckoned him to get up as it was Mother’s Day. Ranjan’s father, Vijay Kumar Thakur, could not believe his eyes; he was too shocked to express any emotions.

Twenty-year-old Ranjan’s mysterious death, however, was not the only tragedy that struck the family. The boy’s 80-year-old grandmother died in Bihar on Sunday on hearing the news of his death.

The dead student’s family has refused to accept the railway police’s claim that it was a suicide. It has also disputed the authenticity of the suicide notes found on the railway tracks near Attibele Gate, off Devanahalli, where Ranjan was found dead on Saturday morning.

Neeraj Sharma, Ranjan’s cousin, refused to believe it was a simple case of suicide. He said Ranjan’s death had a particular history of conflict and revenge. “It was a cold-blooded murder,” he alleged.

According to Sharma, Ranjan had a conflict with his senior and purported love rival Amruth and his gang. Ranjan and Amruth had locked horns over the same girl last year, Sharma alleged.

“Alok was left with broken jaws when he was assaulted by Amruth and his friends in March, last year. For four months after the brawl, he had to be fed through the nose,” he recalled, adding that Amruth and his friends were arrested in that case only to be released later because of their “clout”.

Parents of some of the boys involved in skirmishes with Ranjan had threatened the latter with dire consequences as he had lodged criminal cases. Ranjan was later forced out of the college hostel.

Authorities of the Nagarjuna College of Engineering, where Ranjan was studying, had “discriminated against him”, the family said.
Sharma claimed that Ranjan’s rivals were “local citizens and filthy rich”.

The college principal penalised Ranjan on Friday when he had a tiff with Amruth, he alleged, revealing that Ranjan had spoken to his mother that afternoon and said he feared for his life. “The circumstances clearly point towards a murder,” Ranjan’s cousin reiterated, demanding an impartial probe by the railway police.

Ranjan’s family also demanded to know why the police had not questioned Amruth or his girlfriend. They had not even questioned the college principal to whom Ranjan addressed a letter.

Deputy Superintendent of Railway Police Mir Arif Ali, however, refuted the allegations. He said a case had been registered against some students for Ranjan’s mysterious death. He said the police would certainly question the students whose names Ranjan had mentioned in his letter, and would also question the boy’s friends, shortly. “We have an open mind about the case,” Ali said.

Ranjan was cremated at the Hebbal crematorium on Sunday evening.