Denied entry to civil services exam, man ends life

Barred from entering an exam hall for reaching four minutes late, Varun Chandran, a young civil services aspirant from Kumta in Uttara Kannada, committed suicide in his room on Sunday.

Varun (26), a Malayali settled in Karnataka, was dejected after he was not allowed to appear for the Civil Services Preliminary Examination on Sunday morning. He then allegedly hanged himself from the fan in his rented accommodation in central Delhi’s New Rajinder Nagar.

Varun was delayed because he first went to the wrong venue. By the time he rushed to the centre where he was assigned to appear, the gates were closed. According to UPSC rules, candidates must enter the examination venue for the Sunday preliminary exams 10 minutes before the scheduled commencement of the examination i.e. 9.20 am for the forenoon session and 2.20 pm for the afternoon session.

Varun’s father Subash Chandran is a scientist at the Indian Institute of Science’s Environmental Studies Centre at Kumta.

It is learnt that Varun was preparing for his UPSC exams for the last two years and was supposed to write another exam in Mumbai on Monday. He had also booked an air ticket from Delhi to Mumbai.

He had to appear for the exam in central Delhi’s Sarvodaya Bal Vidyalaya in central Delhi’s Kaseruwalan in Paharganj. However, according to the suicide note recovered by the police, he first reached another Sarvodaya Bal Vidyalaya in Paharganj.

“My UPSC exam centre was Sarvodaya Bal Vidyalaya, Kaseruwalan, Paharganj. I reached the centre well on time at 8.45 am. After I entered, I found out that the centre itself was wrong, the one which I had reached being Sarvodaya Bal Vidayala Paharganj. Although I reached the other centre at 9.24 am, I was denied entry. It is very sad on the part of the supervising officials that such a thing happened. I understand that rules are rules but bending them for a good purpose should be legitimate,” he said in the “suicide note”, saying it was the “main reason” for his suicide.

While the police are investigating whether there is any foul play in the case, investigators said it prima facie appeared to be a case of suicide.

Varun’s note indicated that he could have taken the extreme step any time in future.

“First of all, I would like to declare that nobody/nothing has compelled me to take this step. I was fully aware of the causes/consequences of this step. Although it is a decision taken in haste, it would anyway have happened any time in future,” said the note purportedly written by Varun.

In a note to his family, he said there was “anyway no point in living this life further” and that he “anyway would just have been a living dead body”.

“What had to happen has happened. It would have happened any time, anywhere. I know it will be very difficult from now on, but not impossible. Just think I never existed. The more you try to forget me, the more happy my soul will be,” the note said.

In another note, he said some of the books have to be sent to a female friend while urging that she has nothing to do with his decision and should not be “questioned or harassed”.

“Please clearly inform her the cause of my death. I believe because she has a flight back home on June 6. So any police enquiry etc should not involve her. If any doubt arises, why I am stressing so much on this, let me clearly inform once again we are just friends. It’s just that her books remained with me that I want to return to her for future exams.”