Raju reached out to Oz woman before suicide
Minutes before Pulayala Raju, a student of University of Hyderabad, committed suicide, by hanging inside his hostel room, he had chatted through Facebook with one Elizabeth Wall-Smith from Australia.
Talking to this correspondent, a shocked Ms Elizabeth said that Raju was depressed since he felt he was not getting support from the University authorities and his friends. “I had been communicating with Raju, for a while. He had a lot of stress in life that led to depression. He felt he did not get support from the University or from whomever he approached,” she said, adding that she never thought Raju would end his life.
“When I felt that he was depressed after seeing his FB post, I tried my best to support him and gave him information and tips to get rid of his depression,” said Ms Elizabeth, a social worker who visited India in 2011 as a part of her projects on social issues.
Ms Elizabeth said that Raju may have felt discriminated as he was from the Dalit community.
Though the University authorities and police said that Raju ended his life due to his personal problems, a few of his friends and Ms Elizabeth have given different reasons refuting those claims. They claimed that Raju had a tough time in University as he could not get help from others. “He told me he had difficulty accessing appropriate support or help for his depression at the University. He also had nursed a broken heart, apart from other issues,” Ms Elizabeth said.
Meanwhile, tension mou- nted in the UoH campus in the early hours of Wednesday as Raju’s family members protested against the administration and the Vice -Chancellor and sought explanation for Raju’s academic stress.
His father P. Samaiah said “My son had failed three times in certain subjects, and was not allowed to do his semester registration. We believe that my son was harassed by a few teachers, and we demand their immediate suspension.”