Student leader attempts self immolation

CUTTACK: A student leader of Subhadra Mahatab Mahavidyalaya at Asureswar under Nischintakoili police limits attempted self-immolation on Monday in a bid to protest the visit of local MLA and Health Minister Pratap Jena’s visit to the college’s student union annual function.

According to sources, annual function of the college was scheduled to be held at 12 noon but started three hours late at about 3 pm. Only the Health Minister had attended the function while KIIT founder Achyuta Samanta, who reportedly gave consent to attend as chief guest but could not make it.While the Health Minister was addressing the annual function, the student leader Achyutananda Lenka reached the stage and doused himself in kerosene before trying to set himself on fire. Alert police foiled his self-immolation attempt.

“We rescued the student leader and arrested him under Section 309 of IPC for attempting to commit suicide in the campus. Lenka has also been released on bail,” informed Salepur SDPO PK Jena.Sources said, four days back Lenka had demanded a non-political person as chief guest and had threatened self-immolation if any Minister attended. Later, general secretary Bijay Laxmi Nayak too echoed his demand and opposed Jena as chief guest.

On the other hand, president Choudhury Prasanjit Mahapatra and vice-president Ranjan Kumar Khuntia, on Sunday, submitted a petition to college authorities threatening self-immolation if Jena did not attend the function.Considering the situation, the administration had deployed two platoons of police forces, five Inspectors and a DSP in the campus beside Additional SP NC Swain to supervise the event.