Thiruvananthapuram: Students at the Nehru College of Engineering, Pampady near Thrissur in Kerala on Monday, went on a violent rampage following the suicide of a student on Friday.
The deceased was identified as Jishnu Pranoy (18), a first year computer science student, who was found hanging in a bathroom on the college premises. Police have registered a case of unnatural death.
The college had been shut indefinitely after the incident, but, on Monday morning, students of different political hues including volunteers of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the Kerala Students’ Union and the Students Federation of India marched to the college.
Several policemen stood in front of the college but the students clashed with them, broke the police cordon and entered the premises before unleashing widespread destruction of college property.
Classrooms, canteen furniture and some vehicles were damaged as students ran berserk, pelting stones and smashing window panes with sticks.
The students alleged that Jishnu Pranoy committed suicide because he had been falsely accused of copying in an examination and because of the psychological pressure put on him by the college authorities. Relatives of the deceased student alleged that none from the college management had attended his funeral.
Some students called the death “institutional murder”, alleging that it was the extreme discipline imposed on students that led to Pranoy’s death. Significantly, the violence happened at a time when private engineering colleges in the state are struggling to get enough students for their courses.
