AMU scholar attempts suicide over harassment by research supervisor; VC orders probe

ALIGARH: The Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) vice-chancellor has constituted a two-member enquiry committee to probe the matter of attempted suicide by a female research scholar here, officials said on Tuesday.

Nabeela Khanam, a research scholar at the Interdisciplinary Brain Research Centre in the Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College of AMU, attempted suicide on Sunday after being allegedly harassed by her supervisor over the submission of her thesis.

Khanam took an overdose of tranquillisers on Sunday night and was rushed to the Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College hospital in a serious condition, they said.

AMU spokesperson Omar Peerzada told PTI on Tuesday that taking a serious note of the charges levelled of the complainant, VC Tariq Mansoor has asked the enquiry committee to submit their report within three days.

In her complaint to the VC, the research scholar alleged that her supervisor and co-supervisor were harassing her on issues of submission of her research thesis, Peerzada said.

The two-member committee comprises professor Qazi Mazhar Ali from the department of Statistics and professor Subohi Khan from the department of Mathematics.

Khanam is now out of danger, Peerzada said.

(Assistance for those having suicidal thoughts is available on TN’s health helpline 104 and Sneha’s helpline 044-24640050)