Ragging: Engineering student hangs himself after trauma

September 03, 2002:
Anup Kapoor, a 19-year-old first year engineering student has committed suicide on Thursday by hanging himself from a ceiling fan at his house here. He had returned home from his institute in Lucknow following sexual harassment and mental torture by his seniors.
An outstanding student, Anup had joined the Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET) on September 2. Though, according to the rules, first-year students don't get entry into the hostel, he was allotted a room in the Anand Villa hostel. In his suicide note, Anup said that he was going through mental agony due to the sexual harassment by second-year students of the institute in the name of ragging.
The note said that on some occasions, the seniors dragged the first-year students out from their rooms, took them to a room, asked them to strip down and play ''kabaddi''. It said the physical and mental torture of the first-year students did not end just there.
The maternal aunt of the victim, Dr Gita Seth, said that Anup had complained several times about the harassment to the warden of the Anand Villa hostel and IET officials. She said that Anup had also said he did not want to continue his education in the institute.
Paras Nath Kapoor, Anup's father and a teacher, cursed the institute's administration with tears in his eyes, ''It was my fault that I couldn't guess the gravity of torture Anup was experiencing in the name of ragging in his institute.''
Anup's mother, Manju Kapoor, a school teacher, was not in a condition to say anything except for chanting Anup's name. He had qualified in the MLNR and CBSE entrance tests last year and had also topped the list in Rohilkhand University's engineering examination. However, he wanted to join a high-ranking institute. He had left the MLNR seat as he wanted mechanical engineering course. When he got it at the IET, Lucknow, he decided to join there.
The police said Anup took ''this extreme step due to the agony of ragging by seniors''