Protests continue in IIIT-Basara over 19-year-old student's suicide 

ADILABAD: District Collector Musharraf Ali Faruqi appointed a three-member committee to look into the death by suicide of a student of IIIT-Basara on Wednesday, even as students boycotted classes in protest. The boycott was in response to a call by the OU students’ union, blaming the authorities for not shifting Suresh Rathod, who was found hanging from the ceiling in his hostel room, to the hospital in time. The students allege that the delay was the cause of their death of Rathod.  

Meanwhile, the three-member team completed its inquiry and submitted a report to the Collector. The police investigation, however, is going on. Notwithstanding this, the students insist that it was they who called an ambulance and took Rathod to the hospital when it was the responsibility of the administration to do so. Though an ambulance was to be made available on the campus all the time, it was not around when it was needed most, they said. The students had to summon another ambulance which took more than 90 minutes to reach, they say.

The students also objected to the contention of the administration that Rathod was already dead before he was taken to the hospital. If that was the case, how come the doctors administered treatment to him after admission, they argue? Meanwhile, sources said that Rathod ended his life due to personal reasons. He had not attended classes on Tuesday, telling his classmates that he was not well. When they returned to the hostel in the afternoon, they saw him hanging from the ceiling.

Elsewhere, the police arrested TJS leaders who tried to lay siege to the college campus and took them to the Basara police station.TJS Student Union State executive president and Mudhol constituency in charge Sardar Vinod Kumar said that it was sad that a student should die by suicide on the campus of IIIT-Basara. The students demanded Rs 1 crore ex gratia to the kin of the victim.

Meanwhile, Adilabad BJP MP Soyam Bapu Rao said that the government with the help of the police put its foot firmly down on their demands as it was angry with the students for going on strike in the recent past. The government is not helping the students in any way, not even meeting their basic needs, he alleged.