Students go on rampage as ‘shamed’ girl kills herself

CHENNAI: Students of Sathyabama De­e­m­ed University on Wednesday went on a rampage and set fire to property in the boys’ hostel after a girl student allegedly killed herself in hostel room. They blamed the university staff for shaming Duvvuru Raga Monica Reddy (18) after she was caught cheating in an exam in the morning.

The first-year engineering student hailing from Hyderabad allegedly committed suicide in her college hostel soon after she was sent from the exam hall in the morning. She was taking her second semester exam and attempting the engineering chemistry paper, when she was caught indulging in malpractice.

In the evening, protesting students burnt beds in the boys’ hostel and broke windows. They reportedly did not even allow fire tenders into the ca­mpus where hu­­ge flames had erupted. Some stu­­­dents TNIE sp­o­ke over the ph­o­ne claimed that the girl was sh­a­m­e­d in public, wh­ich led to her suicide. Likewise, an­o­ther boy was recently shamed publicly by the university staff, they alleged.

“It all began around 10.30 am, wh­en an invigilator saw someth­i­ng suspicious and checked her an­swer sheet. He found she was co­pying from another paper she ma­naged to smuggle into the hall. She had written a few ans­w­ers in another paper she brought inside the exam hall and placed it below her answer sheet from wh­i­ch she copied. The invi­gilator as­ked her to leave the ex­am hall,” sa­id a college official.

“The depressed girl went to her hostel and sent a message to her twin brother Rakesh who studies in the same department. In her message in Telugu, she apologised for her mistake and asked for forgiveness,” said the official.