Harassment angle in Steel City student suicide case

Jamshedpur: Police are probing if harassment and bullying forced a 17-year-old Class XI student of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya in the Steel City to take his own life. Johnson Samad’s roommate found him hanging from the ceiling fan in his hostel room on Tuesday afternoon. He was taken to the sadar hospital in Pursudih where doctors declared him brought dead.
On Tuesday morning, Johnson was invited to speak on morality during the morning prayers, but what he said from the dais surprised the school authorities. “Kisi ko itna mat satao ki woh tut jaye (Don’t harass anyone so much that he breaks down),” Johnson had said.

Rajnagar police station in-charge J K Singh on Wednesday said: “Our team will visit the school and the hostel today to investigate if Johnson was harassed or bullied. We are waiting for the post-mortem report.”

Johnson, the son of a mason, was a bright student. “He scored first division in the matriculation exam,” said school principal S K Sinha. “Johnson never approached me with any kind of complaint,” he said.

The boy’s father, Suresh Chandra Samad, has given in writing to the police that he suspects no one behind his son’s suicide, but requested the police to conduct a thorough probe. In the last six years, four students have committed suicide at the same hostel.