Osmania University girl ends life; parents allege ragging

23 Nov 2008, 0511 hrs IST, TNN

HYDERABAD: A student of Osmania University College of Technology, S Harika (18) committed suicide on Saturday due to alleged ragging, leading to

a furore on the campus. The girl was found dead in her room at Vinayaka apartments, Chaitanyapuri by her mother, Vijayalaksmi around 1 pm. However, a suicide note left by Harika raised questions about her father's role in the death.

Harika had joined the Food Processing Technology Department only a month ago. The girl's parents alleged that Harika took the extreme step due to ragging by second-year students of the same college. According to the parents, Harika's seniors ragged her after classes and even forced her to stay on campus till 8.30 pm.

"She kept complaining to us about ragging but we did not take it seriously. But on November 20, she reached home late and we were all worried," girl's mother, Vijayalakshmi said. Harika's father K V K Satyanarayana claimed that on November 21, when he went to collect a certificate from the college, he saw some seniors pestering his daughter and forcing her to sing repeatedly. Satyanarayana asked the senior students to stop pestering Harika and even threatened to complain to the principal. But as the principal was busy in a meeting he did not make his complaint.

"She was very upset when she came home and was scared that the seniors will rag her further since the father got involved in the matter," Vijayalakshmi said.

Harika, who had an internal examination on Saturday left home along with her mother around 9 am but returned and hanged herself. Her father had gone for work and her elder brother, Varun a third year student of CBIT had left for college. She also sent SMSes to her mother asking her to forgive her. "She sent 'I am sorry' messages but I thought she was apologising for throwing a fit the previous night," Vijayalakshmi said.

On hearing the news about Harika's death, students of Osmania University went on a rampage. OU students unions including SFI, AISF and ABVP, stormed the principal's office and broke furniture.