Medical students attempt suicide at Nanded

The four of them had taken six attempts at the examination, the maximum allowed by any university before debaring one from the course.

Fearing their removal from the course the students are now demanding that photocopies of their answer sheets be made available to them so that an independent assessment can be carried out. The students have also alleged that they have been deliberately failed in every attempt.

Dr S B Rathod, who is also the dean of the medicine faculty, Swami Ramananad Terth Marathwada University, Nanded, said the university had done every thing that was possible to keep the students in the course.

"If they could not make use of the opportunity provided then it is their fault," he said.

Current rules actually allow only four attempts but as a special case, these attempts were increased by two following a request by the same students, Rathod said. Now there is no alternatives but to debar them, Rathod said.

Describing the incident, a senior professor of the college said, the students blocked the dean’s car, just when he was about to leave the campus, and popped some pills into their mouth and fell down as if they were in an unconscious state.

From what I have learnt about sleeping pills, I do not know of any pills that puts you to sleep so soon, the professor said.

Interestingly, it was Ganesh Sadavarte, a frequent failure at the Government Dental College, Aurangabad, led the students in their protest.

A few years back Sadavarte had been debarred from the dental course for having failed to make it in the first year course after five attempts. However, he was back in the campus through some unknown developments and has become a rallying point for chronic failures in Marathwada.

Surprisingly, the dean of the dental college, Aurangabad had made a special plea to the police to provide security cover to Sadavarte. However, the police turned down the plea, saying Sadavarte had a number of cases registered against him.