IIT-BHU student suicide: Dad says son not a coward, suspects caste issue
- Initial investigations say Raju was depressed with his grades
- Reports say family suspect that Raju’s Dalit caste had something to do with his death
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A second-year B Tech student of IIT- BHU here allegedly committed suicide by first setting himself on fire and then jumping off the third floor of his hostel building, police said. However, there are contrary reports of him just jumping to his death and no fire involved.
Andhra boy Dara J Bhim Raju, a B Tech Mining Engineering student and inmate of Ramanujan hostel of IIT (BHU), took the extreme step on April 4 as he was upset over his poor performance in the recent semester exams, police said after initial investigations.
Raju, a resident of Nellore in Andhra Pradesh, was rushed to the Sir Sunder Lal Hospital of BHU where doctors declared him dead. His parents have been informed about the incident, they said.
The mobile phone of the deceased has been seized and his hostel room has also been sealed, which will be opened and searched in the presence of Raju's family members for further probe, they said.
According to a report in the Hindustan Times, Raju, a Dalit, was the only son of Dara Krishnaiah, a ticket traveller examiner (TTE) who works at the Nayudupet railway station. He has two sisters.
His family has left for Varanasi.
So far, no suicide note has been recovered, police said adding, the matter is being probed from all angles. Raju’s family, as reported in HT, suspects there is a caste angle to his death.
Raju’s death is now again been given the controversial caste angle as he too is reported to have belonged to a Dalit family. According to a report in Hans India Raju had obtained the seat on merit basis and even his father has commented saying that his son was not a coward to commit suicide
The country, off late, has been flooded with reports of depressed teens and people committing suicide. Another student suicide that occurred recently was of Arun Bharadwaj, a Bengaluru-based 24-year-old who was studying in Mumbai. He livestreamed his suicide on Facebook. In his video he said he was depressed and so was ending his life.
With agency inputs
