JNU scholar felt alienated: Friend
STUDENT SUICIDE Father says his son couldn’t kill self as he was committed to studies, was to visit home in April
The father of JNU research student, J Muthukrishnan, who allegedly committed suicide on Monday evening, was looking forward to meeting his son in April but a phone call changed everything.
Jeevanandhaam M, a security guard at a private firm in Salem, Tamil Nadu, reached Delhi on Tuesday morning and headed to AIIMS. “I spoke to him on Sunday and he said he will come home in April. He cannot commit suicide. I never heard him talk of anything but studies. There should be CBI investigation in this case,” he said.
In a complaint to police, he said he was informed by his son’s friends that he was facing “castebased harassment and discrimination in his academic pursuits from his centre and the JNU administration.”
Political leaders, including CPI’s D Raja and leaders from AIDMK, DMK and Congress, visited Muthukrishnan’s family members at AIIMS. Meanwhile, police said a medical board has been formed to conduct the postmortem and the process will be videographed.In the evening, JNU officials, including the Registrar went to AIIMS and met students and police personnel.
Muthukrishnan wanted to do research on ‘History of Medicines’. Rahul Sonpimple, one of the last persons to meet Muthukrishnan before his death, said, “He was a ‘Kabali’ fan and we would imitate dialogues from the movie. Other than that he was too much into studies... He was always studying in library and it was like he lived there.”
Sonpimple, a member of Birsa Ambedkar Phule Students Association, alleged that Muthukrishnan was feeling discriminated at the centre for historical studies, where he was pursuing MPhil. “He used to talk about how he felt alienated at the Cen- tre as he could not speak fluent English.”
Police have no evidence to suggest his suicide was a result of discrimination at the campus.
Vikas Kumar Moola, a PhD student and Muthukrishnan’s friend, said, “He was feeling alienated and wanted to change his supervisor... He told his current supervisor about it. But nothing was confirmed...”
Speaking at a meeting, Rajat Datta, a faculty member from CHS said Muthukrishnan’s request for change of supervisor was in pipeline as it is done in April, as per protocol.
Vijaya Ramaswamy, chairperson of CHS said, “At the initial stage we don’t have supervisor but advisor. Students may choose to stay with their advisor for dissertation or may seek a change as then the advisor becomes supervisor. There is absolutely no discrimination.”