Family of Phagwara university student who died by suicide demands action against professor

PHAGWARA : Two days after a 21-year-old woman allegedly died by suicide at a private university here, her family on Monday sought action against a professor of the university alleging that he promised to marry her but later refused. According to police, Akanksha from Karnataka allegedly committed suicide by jumping from the ninth floor of the university's hostel on Saturday night. She completed her engineering course from the university in 2024 and had been working as an aerospace engineer in New Delhi for the past six months, they said.

In a written complaint to police, the woman's father Surendra Nair said his daughter was taken for a ride by a faculty member with false promises of marriage. The professor is already married and has two children, the victim's family members told reporters. Akanksha was working with a company in New Delhi and going to have a job in Germany, they said. Earlier, it was claimed that she had come to the university to get some documents from the concerned faculty member who had refused to give the papers and allegedly went back on his promise, triggering the suicide.

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The woman's father demanded registration of an FIR against the professor. On Sunday, woman's brother Akarsh said that her sister suffered from depression and that the family did not suspect anyone, said police. But Akarsh on Monday told the media that he did not understand Punjabi and was not provided any copy of its translated version of his statement. Police assured the bereaved family of a fair investigation in the case. Meanwhile, a postmortem examination of the body was conducted by a three-member board of doctors at the Civil Hospital, Phagwara.