Odisha college girl ends life in hostel; suicide note blames ragging

BHUBANESWAR: A 19-year-old student of the prestigious BJB Autonomous College here allegedly died by suicide in her hostel on Saturday, sparking apprehension that she ended her life due to ragging by seniors, police said. The first-year student of Plus-III Arts with History honours was found hanging inside her room in the ladies’ hostel, deputy commissioner of police Prateek Singh said.

The police found a suicide note in the room, in which she said she was mentally harassed by three seniors of the college. However, she did not name anyone and it is not known whether the three are boarders of the hostel. Though people know that there was no ragging in the BJB Autonomous College, the three senior students were “ragging and harassing me”, she mentioned in the suicide note addressed to her father. The student, who was also preparing for the All India Civil Service examination, also said in the note that she was unable to concentrate on her studies due to the "harassment".

College principal Niranjan Mishra said that he was not aware of any ragging incident in the college and the deceased had not made any such complaint. Her mother, who stays in Cuttack, lodged a complaint at Badagada Police Station here seeking a proper investigation and arrest of the three senior students responsible for the death of her daughter.

Also read | Kerala women in chemistry jobs face caste, gender bias, finds study

Police said the student has taken the extreme step after her roommates went to attend classes at 10 AM. Her roommates said that she was normal then and asked them to bring class notes for her. Meanwhile, activists of NSUI's Odisha unit staged a dharna in front of the official residence of Higher Education Minister Rohit Pujari demanding his resignation for the government's failure to stop ragging in the college. They also demanded the immediate arrest of those three senior students. Some activists were picked up by the police after they started hurling tomatoes targeting the minister's house.