Chennai, March 30
Suicide by a Chandigarh girl, Chetna Ramachandran, a third year B.Tech student in the Annamalali University in the temple town of Chidambaram, 250 km from here, under suspicious circumstances lead to closure of the university as violence erupted within the campus.
While university authorities alleged that she took the extreme step after being caught copying during an examination, her parents alleged that she was being harassed by a university lecturer while students accuse the invigilators of "frisking her by touching her body after levelling false charges of copying.”
Tension prevailed on the campus after Chetna's parents arrived from Chandigarh. Her father Ramachandran, hailing from Tamil Nadu, is a senior officer in Chandigarh's BSNL office, and her mother is a Punjabi.
Chetna committed suicide in her hostel room on March 26 after she was allegedly "humiliated and frisked by two male invigilators in an empty room" during an examination as she was suspected to be cheating. She went to her room at 4 pm and hung herself from the ceiling fan with her "dupatta" and her body was discovered by a friend after an hour.
Her body was taken to Raja
Mutthiah Medical College Hospital within the university campus where she was declared brought dead. A post mortem was carried out by doctors from Cuddalore Government Hospital and her body was handed over to her parents who cremated her in Chidambaram.
Talking to The Tribune over the telephone while returning to Chandigarh, Ramachandran, a resident of Zirakpur, said: "Sometime ago, my daughter complained to her mother about being stalked by a lecturer Raghuram. Chetna began ignoring his telephone calls. Then the man is understood to have changed his number and called again. But this was something that Chetna could live with. I have informed the Vice-Chancellor of the university and the police about this." A heart-broken Ramachandran said: "My daughter, who was only 20 years old, was a bright student. She could have attended any university in Punjab. But I sent her to Tamil Nadu to help her learn our culture and tradition. I have no clue as to exactly happened to my daughter because she spoke to her mother on the telephone just three hours before she died and had a long conversation. The test itself was of no consequence because it was an internal exam which could have fetched her, at best, 20 marks which in turn couldn't have had any bearing on her final results.
"She had absolutely no reason to do any copying. In fact her classmates told me that the paper said to have been found in her purse was planted on her.
But Chetna herself was very dismissive of the incident when she talked to my wife. Nobody can fathom what goes on in somebody else's mind. Probably a sudden death wish overtook Chetna's love for life. Fate overtook what was a very peaceful life. So it was totally an unfortunate incident." He said: "I have another daughter studying in Tiruchi which is further south in Tamil Nadu. She too is here only to learn more about our culture. I have no intention whatsoever of taking her home now as a follow-up of this.
Chetna died due to her fate. My younger daughter, I am sure, will emerge a better person when she completes her degree."
After the cremation a spate of SMS messages were sent out by the students who gathered inside the university campus. They alleged that Chetna was a "brilliant" student of electronics and instrumentation and was falsely accused of "hiding bits of paper inside her dress during a model lab examination by two male invigilators who touched her body while frisking her in an adjoining room to the examination hall.” They pointed out that being a "brilliant student there was no need for her to copy at all.”
However, a university official said: "The student committed suicide because she felt humiliated when she was caught copying by the invigilators. They used another female student to frisk her. There is no truth to the rumours that the invigilators had frisked the girl." He said Chetna was debarred from continuing with her examination that day but was given the option to re-appear for the test.
The agitated students from arts and science streams gathered midnight on Wednesday and went on the rampage pelting stones, breaking window panes and damaging property at the chemistry block, aquarium and helipad guest house.
They allegedly entered the stores and damaged computers of the university which recently hosted the 94th Indian Science Congress. The windscreens of a university bus and a van belonging to the Centre of Advanced Study in Marine Biology, too, were damaged.
Following largescale violence within the campus the university authorities ordered a closure for an indefinite period and students to vacate the hostels. Special buses were arranged by the Cuddalore district administration to ferry out the students from the campus.
Though Chetna's father, Ramachandran, did not lodge any formal complaint with the police, a case under Section 174 (suspicious and unnatural death) of the Indian Penal Code was registered.
