The reason behind the suicide is yet to be ascertained.A GROUP of students of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) clashed with police and damaged police vehicles after a former student allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself in a hostel room on the campus Tuesday night. The deceased, identified as 26-year-old Anas Shamsi, had cleared Master in Social Work (MSW) from the university recently.
The reason behind the suicide is yet to be ascertained. Police said that an FIR was registered against six students and several unidentified others for stone pelting and damaging the official vehicle of Aligarh SP (City).
The students claimed that the protest was triggered by a delay on the part of the police in taking the body down. They alleged that the student’s body was kept hanging for around two-and-half hours even after the varsity administration came to know about the incident. However, the AMU administration and the police denied the allegations.
According to sources, the deceased was planning to pursue a PhD. Anas Shamsi had come to the campus from his hometown in Pilibhit three days ago to collect his documents and was staying in a hostel room. No suicide note was found from the room, the police said. The body was sent for postmortem and the report was awaited.
Aligarh SP (City) Abhishek said that before they were informed about the suicide, a murder had taken place near the university gate and therefore he and the police force were present there for investigation.
“A finance firm employee, Mohammad Farooq, was murdered by unidentified persons around 8:45 pm near the campus and soon after, news of the suicide came. I sent the CO and SHO to look into it and after some time I decided to go to the spot, too. However when I came inside the campus, students who were already protesting against university administration over some demands related to student union election, targeted my vehicle,” said Abhishek.
According to the FIR, the students began a violent protest after the police officials allegedly reached late to remove the body of the deceased and later tried to send it for postmortem.
“The students attacked and misbehaved with policemen accompanying the SP… The assailants destroyed public property on campus and pelted stones to deter police officials from doing their duty,” stated the FIR registered for rioting, wrongful confinement, assault to deter public servant from discharge of his duty along with others.
No arrest has been made yet.
“When a protest happens in the university, a police team reaches in 5-10 minutes. When our student’s body was hanging, they took hours to come,” said student leader Farhan Zubairi.