Manjunath was depressed after final results

Family members and friends of Manjunath, who committed suicide over a confusion in his civil services examination result, remember him as being a brave boy, studious and mature for his age.

The family hails from Vanigere village in Kunigal. His mother V S Nagaratnamma is a housewife and his two younger brothers Ramachandra and Madhu Yadav are pursuing their undergraduate studies in the City. The family lives in a single bedroom house in a narrow bylane in R Gopalaswamy Iyer Colony at Sriramapura.

Yadavamurthy, Manjunath’s father, told Deccan Herald that though he could not afford to send his children for higher studies, he did his best to provide good education to his sons. “Manjunath was a bright student. He took out an education loan of Rs 5 lakh and completed his engineering in Information Science from Jain College of Technology in Bangalore. After completing engineering in 2011, he took a break for a year and prepared for the civil service exams.”

Yadavamurthy said Manjunath was passionate about civil services and toiled hard to realise his dream. “He prepared for the exams himself as we could not afford tuitions. He used to go to a nearby government library and study for almost 12 hours a day,” he said.
Manjunath’s uncle Gavisiddaiah said the family had raised a loan of Rs 30,000 and they all had gone to Delhi a week before his UPSC interview to be by his side. His mother remembers him bragging while returning from Delhi that this would be her last journey on train and next time he would take her by a plane as all their lives would change for good. “He was very confident. But the results put him in a quandary,” his uncle said.

His younger brother Ramachandra told Deccan Herald Manjunath was depressed after the final results. “Relatives and friends were calling him constantly inquiring about the issue. He was tired of answering calls. The stress grew so much that he couldn’t afford to fail. This might have led him to take the extreme step,” he said.

Early Thursday morning, Manjunath is suspected to have left home when his family members were asleep. For two days, the family was desperately searching for him.
Gavisiddaiah said the family thought that filing a police complaint would leave a black mark in his police verification, which is done for civil service selection, and desisted from doing so. On Saturday morning, the family was informed of his death in Napoklu.

Yadavamurthy said that in 2010 he had gone on a trek to Napoklu in Madikeri,with some of his friends and had liked the place much. “He had been saying the family should go on a trip to Napoklu. But we could never afford it. However, he has chosen the same place for his last journey,” he said.

Father blames UPSC

Yadavamurthy said his son had taken the extreme step because of the callous attitude of the UPSC. “Even if they had clarified that my son had failed, he wouldn’t have bothered much. But all his queries were stonewalled,” he said.

Manjunath’s name was also misspelt in the UPSC preliminary examination hall ticket. Instead of Manjunath V Y, his name was spelt as Manjunath V V. Manjunath had then written to the UPSC and got his initials corrected, he said.

P R Rao, a former IAS officer who has been training students for civil service, said: “It is a great tragedy we have lost such a bright guy. It speaks volumes of the boy that he did not go to any tutorials and cleared the exam in his first attempt. But what has happened might have been due a clerical error by the UPSC. However, it has cost the life of one of the boys. The UPSC should immediately institute an inquiry into the case and see that justice is done.”