‘Want to tell our side of story’: Mother of Aditya Prabhu, PES University student who died by suicide, narrates ordeal

Aditya died by suicide on July 17. According to the management, a computer science engineering student, Aditya was caught cheating during the examination. The invigilators reportedly caught him with a mobile phone around 11.30 am, almost at the end of the examination.

On Instagram, Asha wrote, “I am Aditya Prabhu’s mother. He was a student (19 years old) of PES college, RR road campus, CSE 1st year student…The college announced to the media that Aditya was caught cheating and copying during the examination. He was detained. He was counselled…I want to tell our side of the story.”

Asha further narrated, “I got a call from Aditya at 11.45 am July 17th. He told me that he forgot to put the phone back in his bag and the phone remained in his pant pocket. He remembered it halfway thru (through) the exam and himself took it and kept it away from him either on the bench or the floor (I can’t remember his exact words). And the phone was in airplane mode. The invigilator saw it and detained him. He wrote the full exam.”

“Aditya also told that they are harassing him, they told him it’s better to die than to do such things and asked me to come to college. After some time, I got a call from his mentor in college asking me to come. Later I got to know from students in the class that the invigilators saw the mobile at 11:26 am with only 4 minutes remaining for the end of the exam. When I reached there, no one was in the office and I was told to wait. I waited for nearly 1 hour. Then the mentor and the COE arrived,” Asha narrated.

“I was called into the office. And they started looking for Aditya. They said they had told Aditya to sit there. They asked around a bit, everyone said he was sitting there. They told me he must be roaming around with friends. I said it’s impossible that he will go out with friends when such serious charges are lodged against him. I started demanding that they look in CCTV cameras for him and that he might be in danger if he wasn’t sitting there. They still kept telling he is out with friends. After some time, they started making calls. And then they rushed out. I followed them. We walked quite a lot and came to other end of the campus,” she wrote on Instagram.

She further wrote that upon seeing an ambulance and police presence, she started frantically shouting when the management informed her that her son isn’t alive. “I asked them to take him to a hospital and revive him. What I was told next is unbelievable…I was told that I need to recognise him first and sign a statement and then they will take him to hospital and try to revive him. Even though I was alone, they took me (2 or 3 of them holding me) to recognise my son’s body…Once I agreed that it is Aditya, they gave me something to sign and told that as soon as I sign, they will take him to hospital. Again and again I was pressured to sign,” Asha’s post read.

She also alleged that soon her friend arrived and advised her not to sign anything until her family members arrived. It was only after her family members arrived and pressured for an investigation did the forensic team arrive and the dog squad was brought in.

She also alleged that till 7.30 pm, nobody came and spoke to them. “At 7.30, VC came and met us and said they are very sorry for what happened…”

She also alleged that the authorities had initially tried to pressurise the police to take away the body from the campus and had allegedly claimed that the deceased is not their student and rather some unknown person who had walked into the campus.

Speaking to indianexpress.com, PES University’s chancellor Prof Jawahar Doreswamy refuted some of the claims made by Asha. Doreswamy also said that if the police investigation finds lapses on the part of the college management, the institution will take measures to address them.

He refuted the claim that the mother and the student had spoken over the phone at 11.45 am since phones are confiscated when a student is found engaging in malpractices.

“The institution is cooperating with the investigation in all ways. We have SOPs that are followed when malpractice is identified. In our college, every student is assigned a mentor. At such times, the parent is called by the mentor and is informed about the incident. A detailed report is filed and a handbook is submitted to the student. However, this incident is the first time in the institution’s 50 years. As soon as the students come in after the break, we will assess them, have a condolence meeting and convey the SOPs,” said Doreswamy.

According to the chancellor, if malpractice is committed during an examination, a student is not allowed to write the examination and is given an ‘F’ grade only for that subject. “The student doesn’t lose a semester or a year but writes the paper along with the third semester examination. In case of using a mobile phone, the invigilator also seizes the device used for malpractice,” Doreswamy explained.

“The boy incidentally has a grade point average of 8.55 which is extremely good. Expecting a boy with that kind of ability to have yielded to some kind of pressure like this is surprising to us. We want the investigation to get into the depth of the incident and find out what it was,” said Doreswamy.

Regarding Asha’s claim of making her sign a statement. Doreswamy said, “I am not aware of this at all. The police had come to the site of the incident. They had informed us to stay away from the scene.” A malpractice committee will also internally investigate the matter and check whether the whole chain of command was followed and address any shortcomings that will be identified.

The Bengaluru police have registered an FIR against the invigilators, the management of the PES University and the staff and booked them under IPC Section 306 (If any person commits suicide, whoever abets the commission of such suicide, shall be punished with imprisonment).