JNU scholar's suicide: ABVP demands CBI probe, suspension of teachers

The ABVP raised doubts about the suicide, which it conjectured could be a murder.

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The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) on Monday demanded a CBI probe into JNU student J. Muthukrishnan's suicide and sought suspension of the teachers of Centre for Historical Studies, of which he was a student, to prevent them from influencing the investigation.

"Four faculty members of the Centre are believed to have discriminated against Muthukrishanan. They are Neeladri Bhattacharya, Rajat Datta, Burton Cleetus and Kumkum Roy.

"These teachers should be suspended for the time being, so that a fair probe can be conducted," the student body said in a statement after submitting a memorandum to the Vice-Chancellor, Rector-1 and SC/ST Cell of the varsity to this end.

ABVP leader Saurabh Sharma alleged that Muthukrishnan was not happy with his advisor Burton Cleetus and wanted him changed. He then approached another professor Neeladri Bhattacharya, who also refused to mentor him in his thesis.

"He was not happy with his advisor. Neeladri Bhattacharya also refused to take him under after much dilly-dallying, saying that his (Muthukrishnan's) English wasn't good.

"All this is on record as he had written about his unhappiness with the situation in a letter to the Dean of the Centre about a week before his suicide... he was also made to write his research proposal 38 times before getting approval, he had said in a Facebook post," Sharma told IANS.

"We demand the resignation of the Dean and Chairperson of the Centre as well, since all this was being done right under their nose and after they had been apprised of it," he added.

Ths Rashtriya Swyamsevak Sangh-backed student body urged the authorities to criminally prosecute the teachers involved and raised doubts about the suicide, which it conjectured could be a murder.

The M.Phil History student had committed suicide after hanging himself from a ceiling fan on March 13, the day festival of Holi was being celebrated.

Muthukrishnan, also known as Krish Rajini, had gone to a friend's house in Munirka Vihar near the campus to have food in the afternoon the same day, but later locked himself inside the room on the pretext on sleeping. He was found hanging from the ceiling by his friends who called the police.

He belonged to Tamil Nadu and hailed from a poor family.