[Telegraph] Ragging cloud on student ‘suicide’

Link to report

OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

Lucknow, July 27: An Allahabad technology student died of strangulation earlier this week, a post-mortem revealed today, raising the stench of ragging gone too far.

Suicide was believed to be the cause after Alankeswar Mishra was found hanging from the ceiling of his room in Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology on Tuesday.

But the post-mortem report today revealed that the 18-year-old was strangled. Police say they suspect “a crude form of ragging”.

Vijay Kumar, deputy inspector-general (Allahabad range), said the door of the room in which Alankeswar was found had been locked from inside. But another door, leading to the hostel compound, was open. The key to the locked door was found in the pocket of the deceased.

“We initially thought it was suicide. Now we have to take it seriously. The line of investigation has changed. We are looking at the possibility of ragging in the institute. He was in the first year,” Kumar said, adding that a murder FIR has been filed.

Rakesh Mishra, Alankeswar’s father, said over the phone from the family home in Kanpur that his son was a “victim of violent ragging”. “He said he was scared of seniors when he left home on July 23 for his hostel. This is a case of murder but we don’t know if it was intentional.”

Rupesh Jain, a friend and college-mate, said Alankeswar had been humiliated by seniors, mostly facing abuses, but said: “I am unaware of any violent attack on him.”

Some junior students, however, suspect that as the death was the result of strangulation, Alankeswar might have been murdered.

The police suspect that the door could have been locked with the help of a duplicate key while another could have been put in the pocket to put investigators off track.

The grilling of Alankeswar’s two roommates and another friend — all said they were in class when the death occurred — hasn’t given the police any clue.