Suicide blamed on ragging: Devender Kumar

Source: http://www.tribuneindia.com/2009/20090610/main3.htm



Ragging claims student’s life in AP
Suresh Dharur
Tribune News Service

Hyderabad, June 9
Unable to put up with ragging by his seniors, an engineering student committed suicide by jumping before a running train in Warangal district of Andhra Pradesh.The body of Devender Kumar, a 22-year-old MCA student of Hyderabad-based Vasavi Engineering College, was found on the railway track near Dharmaram village in Warangal district, the police said.

A suicide note recovered from Kumar's pocket said he was resorting to the extreme step as he was unable to bear the ragging by his seniors at the private college.

The student’s death came as a stark reminder of the continued ragging menace in professional colleges despite the Supreme Court’s recent directive to the state governments on curbing incidents of ragging. “There is a lack of sincerity on the part of the government to check this menace. The private managements have been routinely turning a deaf ear to complaints of ragging,” an education expert and MLC Ch Ramaiah said.

Kumar’s family members allege that the college management did not take any action on their complaint regarding ragging. . “My son used to talk about the ragging problem. We took it to the notice of the management but no action was taken,” his father Sankaraiah said.

The deceased, a native of Chopadandi village in Karimnagar district, was returning to write his semester examination in Hyderabad when the incident occurred. The police has registered a case of unnatural death and the body has been shifted to MGM Government hospital at Warangal for post mortem. Kumar’s case came close on the heels of the sensational Bapatla ragging case where 19-year-old student, Triveni, was allegedly forced to strip by her college mates. Humiliated, she tried to kill herself. She was, however, lucky to survive.

The ragging incidents continue to be reported even after the Supreme Court took a serious note of the menace and had, on May 7 last, asked all state governments to set up committees to prevent such incidents.