A 19-year-old student was found dead in his college hostel in Hyderabad in a suspected case of suicide after recording a video accusing other students of forcing him to pay a substantial bar bill, police said.
In the video, the second-year engineering student at a private college, who belongs to a Scheduled Tribe community, said he was forced to pay Rs 10,000 for alcohol at a bar. A senior police officer told The Indian Express that the video was recorded on Sunday evening, just before he died by suicide.
However, the police have said that he was not ragged as it was “mostly students of the same batch who were forcing him to pay up”, the officer said, adding that the police investigation into the matter is progressing.
The student was from the Adilabad district of Telangana. According to police, the student was forced to attend the party at a bar in Medipally at around 4 pm on Sunday. The students that he named in the video message are absconding, police said. “There is a widespread search for the accused in the case. They are booked under abetment of suicide, extortion and crimes under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act,” a police officer said.
Authorities at his college refused to comment when contacted.