PhD scholar’s family files FIR against research guide, HoD and Dean, alleges harassment

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The family said the FIR named the research guide Vidyottama Jain, Head of Department of Mathematics D C Sharma and Dean (research) Aditya Gupta. It also alleges inaction on the part of V-C A K Pujari. This is the second FIR against faculty members at CUR in less than a month. Earlier in January, Dalit PhD scholar Umesh Kumar had filed an FIR-through a court order-against the V-C and seven other faculty members.

In the recent case, the scholar’s family claimed the research guide had been harassing him. Mohit had even submitted an application to his HoD asking to be assigned another guide. “He was very bright but had been really depressed lately. He had been calling his father and telling him about the guide’s harassment for a few months now. The guide also delayed signing his scholarship papers which upset him further since he was not from a financially sound family,” his cousin Sanjeev Chauhan told The Indian Express.

While the police did not find a suicide note, Mohit’s friends said he was “depressed and upset” over not getting his scholarship and contingency grant. “The university administration wants to send the body back to his hometown Bijnor straight from the hospital while the students are demanding that the body be brought to the university,” a university source said. While V-C A K Pujari said Mohit was not present at Friday’s meeting, his senior in the mathematics department indicated otherwise.

“The meeting about pending scholarships was long due and Mohit being from a financially poor background was really upset about that since he used to save from his scholarship amount to send some money back home,” PhD student Purushottam said.

“At Friday’s meeting, he was present but since it was a meeting of 200 scholars scheduled in a hall that could seat only 80, he was standing outside the hall. We had even exchanged text messages over WhatsApp about the V-C’s unhelpful attitude during the meeting after the issue of scholarships was dismissed without any concrete action,” he said.

That purportedly upset the 24-year-old PhD student, who then left the meeting. An hour later, his friends found him hanging inside his hostel room.

Another PhD student from the Hindi department and a resident of the same hostel building, said Mohit used to complain about his research guide. “He used to tell me that his research guide did not like his face and used to trouble him. Research scholars are dependant on the guide for their scholarships and the contingency grant. As far as the V-C meeting with scholars is concerned, Mohit did go for it but didn’t stay long and left midway. The meeting itself was quite positive,” said Sarvesh Mishra, the scholar.

Vice-chancellor A K Pujari said he would talk to the student’s parents to find out more about the incident.