Student dies by suicide at Sharda University: Admin admits to lapses, report due tomorrow 

The varsity had initiated an inquiry to probe the matter, and appointed a five-member high-level committee comprising the Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Dean (Humanities), Chief Proctor, Professor of Law and a career counsellor. The team has been preparing the report under a senior advisor.

Dr Ajit Kumar, Public Relations Officer, Sharda University, told The Indian Express on Thursday that the committee was to submit its report within five days, but it couldn’t as the student’s parents were yet to record their statement. “We have reached out to them but have not received a statement from them yet,” he said.

He also said that the two teachers who have been arrested over the alleged abetment have recorded their statements before the committee and denied their involvement. “We have also found certain lapses on our part. There are a lot of things that we mention in theory, which we do not practice. The initial findings of the report point towards the need for administrative reforms,” said Kumar.

When asked about the delay in informing the police, Kumar attributed it to an “unavailability of skills” among those handling the situation after her death. “The incident happened for the first time, and all the attention was shifted on getting her admitted to the hospital,” added Kumar.

In the purported suicide note, which named six people, Jyoti wrote that she was humiliated and mentally harassed. Saying that she had been feeling stressed for a long time, she added: “I am sorry. I cannot live like this anymore. I can’t.”

While Dr Vashist and Dr Chauhan were suspended by the varsity, four other faculty members, including the dean and one unidentified staff member, were booked on the charge of abetment of suicide and later suspended by the varsity.

Jyoti’s father, Ramesh Jangra, in his complaint filed at Knowledge Park police station, had alleged that the “university’s administrative officials and workers brought her body down… and took her to Sharda Hospital without informing the police or the family”.

He had also alleged that one of the accused “tortured” his daughter in class by saying, “since you make too many complaints, you will be punished”.

He had claimed the arrested faculty members, along with another person, had threatened Jyoti again by not approving her work and not allowing her to take the exam.

The father claimed that he had visited the college last Monday to meet the Dean and others. “They assured me they would neither torture my daughter nor misbehave with her. But even after that, they harassed my daughter,” he wrote in the complaint.

Police have lodged an FIR under sections 108 (abetment of suicide), 238 (disappearance of evidence), 79 (insult to the modesty of a woman), 352 (breach of peace), and 351(2) (criminal intimidation) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.