Telangana residential school student commits suicide

Hyderabad : A Class 9 student of BC Welfare Residential School in Telangana’s Sangareddy district allegedly committed suicide on Saturday, police said.

Swati,14, was found hanging from the ceiling in her hostel room of the Mahatma Jyotibapule BC Gurukula in Kotlapur. The reasons for the student's suicide were not known. The girl hailed from Lingampally.

Police shifted the body for autopsy and took up an investigation.

Meanwhile, mild tension prevailed at Sri Gnana Saraswathi in Basar of Nirmal district after police detained activists of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) protesting against the student suicides at the Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge and Technologies (RGUKT).

More than 100 activists of the ABVP gathered at the temple to draw the attention of Revenue Minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy who was scheduled to visit the temple, on the suicides at RGUKT, also known as IIIT Basar.

Police personnel, who were deployed as part of security arrangements for the minister’s visit, detained the ABVP activists. They objected to the police detaining them when they were visiting the temple, alleging that the police were not even allowing them to visit the temple. There was a heated argument between them and the police officers.

The police shifted the ABVP activists to different police stations in the district. The ABVP alleged that its activists were assaulted by the RGUKT security staff when they were staging a protest on November 11 following a student’s suicide. The student union had given a call to lay siege to the university and during the protest they clashed with security staff.

As the ABVP was planning a protest over the assault, police tightened security in the temple town to prevent any untoward incident.

A student died of suicide at IIIT Basar on November 11. Sai Priya, 17, hanged herself in her hostel room on the campus. Hailing from Armoor in the Nizamabad district, she was a Pre-University Course (PUC) second-year student. The university authorities attributed the suicide to personal problems. However, her parents suspect the involvement of some students in her death. Police registered a case and are investigating. IIIT Basar has reported a spate of student suicides in recent years.