JNU student J Muthukrishnan was found dead at his friend's house in Delhi's Munirka Vihar
Suspecting a foul play, the family members of J Muthukrishnan, an M Phil student at Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), on Tuesday demanded a probe into his death. Speaking to reporters, his mother Alamelu said her son had planned a visit to home this month.
She said it is difficult to believe that Muthukrishnan, 28, committed suicide. The parents of the boy also refused to give consent for autopsy of Mr Muthukrishnan's body. They demanded the presence of a "neutral" forensic expert.
"The parents want at least one expert from their native state of Tamil Nadu as they are apprehensive about the impartiality of the local doctors. The autopsy has been deferred till tomorrow (Wednesday)," Students Federation of India (SFI) leader Sunand told IANS.
The local police said that he was not part of any politically active group on the campus.
He neither made any complaint to the JNU administration nor was there any complaint against him by the administration," DCP (South) Ishwar Singh said.
Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister EK Palaniswami announced a compensation of Rs 3,00,000 to for the student's family.
Muthukrishnan allegedly hanged himself to death in his friend's room in Delhi on Monday night. He was reported to have gone to his friend's house in Munirka Vihar to have food. He had locked himself inside a room afterward on the pretext of sleeping. Though no suicide note was found on him, a Facebook post, allegedly written by him days before the incident, indicated a case of disaffection with the authorities and discrimination at their hands.
Expressing condolences, Mr Palaniswami said in a statement that orders have been issued to officials to render necessary help in bringing the body of Muthukrishnan from Delhi to his village in Salem district.
The Vice Chancellor of the university M Jagadesh Kumar also expressed grief at the death of the student. "JNU community is grief stricken at untimely and sad demise of Muthukrishnan J. We pray that God be with his family at this critical time(sic)," Mr Kumar said in a tweet.
The students, however, condemned the way Mr Kumar's condolence tweet. "Leave alone consoling the family and helping them to go through the procedure, the university authorities haven't even bothered to pay a visit to the hospital where the body of the deceased is lying since last night (Monday)," JNUSU Vice President Amal Pullarkat said through a Facebook post.
DMK's Working President MK Stalin urged the Chief Minister to impress upon the central government for a detailed probe into Muthukrishnan's death.
(With inputs from IANS and PTI)