Ragging drives first year medico to suicide in Kurnool

A first year MBBS student, beaten and ragged by seniors, hanged himself to death in his hostel room at the Government Medical College, Kurnool in Andhra Pradesh, late Monday night.

Twenty-year-old Komma Harsha Praneeth Reddy from Aravindnagar in Kadapa town, took the extreme step after returning from the seniors' hostel, where he was allegedly beaten up during ragging. The humiliated junior hung himself in his dormitory.

However, police say that Reddy returned to his room at around 11.30 pm after spending some time with his friends in the hostel premises. Around midnight, his hostelmates knocked on his door to pick up some reference books. As there was no response, they climbed the wall behind the room, only to find Reddy hanging from the ceiling fan. “We tried calling him over mobile phone and heard it ringing. When there was no sound of the fan turning, we knew something is not right,” a batch mate said.

They lowered the body and shifted him to the college hospital, where he was declared brought dead. The college management informed the student's father, Koma Ramanujulu Reddy in Kadapa. The father, who rushed to the college in the morning, said his son was a bright student and a rank holder. “It is murder. He was complaining of severe ragging on the campus,” Ramanujulu Reddy said.

'It's murder'

He also suspected that seniors might have thrashed him to death as there were injuries on the body. The crestfallen yet resolute father said he had consoled his son saying little ragging was common in professional colleges. “I even brought it to the notice of the college management a couple of times, but they did not take it seriously,” Ramanujulu Reddy said.

Kurnool Medical College Principal Dr G S Rama Prasad denied any ragging in the college. “It's banned and none of the first year MBBS students have ever complained about ragging. We suspect that he was worried about forthcoming semester examinations,” he said.

The Kurnool police have booked a case of suspicious death and are investigating.