Tensions prevailed at a self-financing engineering college at Kottayam district in Kerala over the death of a student allegedly following torture by the some teachers.
Sradha Satheesh, 20, a second-year food technology student at the Amal Jyothi College of Engineering at Kanjirapally in Kottayam was found hanging in her hostel room on June 2. Her parents and friends alleged that she ended life by suicide owing to torture by a section of teachers.
As the tension escalated following protest by students, the college authorities decided to shut the college on Tuesday and asked hostel inmates to vacate their rooms. But the students continued the agitation in the campus seeking justice for Satheesh. They alleged that the college authorities were trying to destroy evidence and demanded action against the hostel warden and a head of the department who allegedly tortured the deceased.
Satheesh's mobile phone was allegedly seized by the college authorities, who had accused her of using it inside the lab. There were allegations that the college authorities tried to cover up the case of suicide by informing doctors that she collapsed in the hostel.
State Higher Education Minister R Bindu, who had earlier sought a report on the incident, said on Tuesday that self-financing colleges should not be imposing too much pressure on students in the name of discipline and moral policing. The minister is likely to visit the college on Wednesday.
(Published 06 June 2023, 18:16 IST)
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