A day after the Uttar Pradesh police booked two teachers of the Gorakhpur university following the suicide attempt of a Dalit student, teachers of the varsity met the vice-chancellor and demanded his intervention.
Deepak Kumar, a research scholar of the philosophy department, attempted suicide last Thursday and recorded a video that went viral on social media.
In his suicide note, the student said he took the step in depression after he was allegedly discriminated due to his caste by Dwarika Nath, the head of the philosophy department; and C P Srivastav, the dean of the faculty of arts.
The condition of the student, who is undergoing treatment at a hospital, is stable. A case was registered against the two teachers under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act on Monday, but they have not been arrested yet.
Led by the teachers' association president, Vinod Kumar, some teachers met Vice-Chancellor V K Singh at 11 am on Tuesday and demanded that the police action be deferred, pending the completion of an internal inquiry.
Vinod Kumar said the university had immediately formed a committee to probe the incident and they also met Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath over the issue.
But, before the probe was completed, a case was registered, he said, alleging external pressure behind the action.
"We've asked the VC to postpone any police action before a probe. We will meet the CM once again in this regard... Tomorrow we will protest with black bands," he added.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)