CSMMU student kills self

Sushil Kumar Choudhary,a 2005 batch student,was barred from appearing in the final year examination,to be held in March,as he could not clear one of the four papers of the second semester.

He had applied for the re-evaluation of the paper. The results were declared on Saturday and Sushil could still not manage the pass marks.

The police lodged a case of abetment to suicide and also under the SC/ST Act against three university officials on the complaint lodged by the family alleging that Sushil was a victim of caste discrimination.

The university authorities,however,denied the allegations and pointed at the student’s poor academic record.

“Around 1.30 pm,Sushil came to our place in a depressed mood after failing the pharmacology paper once again and said that a teacher was failing him intentionally,” said Ram Bachan Choudhari,Sushil’s uncle who resides in Sarojini Nagar.

“Around 9.30 pm he started vomiting. We took him to the Awadh Hospital. The doctors there told us to take him to the trauma center where the doctors declared him dead on arrival,” said his uncle.

According to the family,Sushil was frustrated as he was being detained in the paper just because he belonged to the SC community. They alleged that some teachers had made some casteist remarks.

Though no suicide note was found,the family said a draft text message was found in Sushil’s mobile in which he had mentioned that he had once again failed to pass the examination. He was frustrated and did not want to live any further.

“He was frustrated as he failed thrice in the same paper — pharmacology — by merely two or three marks,” said Sushil’s father D N Choudhary,an employee of State Bank of India,Gorakhpur.

He lodged an FIR against Controller of Examination S K Das,Head of Department K K Pant and Registrar V P Singh,accusing them of making casteist remarks against Sushil as well as demanding money for passing him.

The family members and members of SC/ST associations who had gathered near the postmortem house at CSMMU refused to take the body unless and until the FIR was lodged. Later,they shouted slogans in front of the administrative block before taking the body for cremation.

Dr Saroj Chooramani Gopal,Vice-Chancellor of CSMMU said Sushil had failed in three papers in the second semester. Later he cleared the supplementary for the other two papers but failed to secure the pass marks in pharmacology even after appearing for it thrice.

“He failed in the paper by eight marks. Had the difference of marks been five or less,we would have been in a position to grant him grace marks,” she said.

The V-C refuted the caste discrimination claims. “The student failed in theory where the papers are bar-coded and the examiner does not know the student. He had passed in the practical examination and viva where the student is before the examiner. A committee,however,has been formed to look into the matter,” said the V-C.