Kerala Professor Named In Student's Suicide Case At University In Punjab

A student's death by suicide at a university in Punjab triggered massive protests on the campus as students demanded an investigation. Now, a Kerala professor has been named in the case for "abetment of suicide".

Agni S Dileep, 21, from Kerala was pursuing a degree in design at the Lovely Professional University or LPU.

Before joining the university, he was a student at National Institute of Technology, Calicut, from where he was rusticated, the police said, quoting his father. The student's father also confirmed that it was his son's handwriting on three suicide notes recovered by the police.

The police had earlier said he was dealing with "personal issues", referring to a suicide note.

This is the second death by suicide at the Lovely Professional University in Phagwara in 10 days, the protesters allege.

"A first-year student of B. Design at LPU has died by suicide on Tuesday afternoon. DSP Phagwara stated that prima facie the student was having some personal issues, as has been suggested by the note left by them," the police in Kapurthala tweeted.

The university issued a statement giving a similar reason.

"From the suicide note recovered, the student took this extreme step because personal problems he faced in his previous institution at NIT Calicut (Kerala), where he studied for two years," the statement read.

It further said that a "misunderstanding" among the students had led to the protest. 

"Police and University authorities have clarified the whole situation to the students. Now there is calm in the university, all students are now peacefully attending the classes as well as taking examinations," the statement read.

The protesting students, who allege that the previous suicide was covered up by the authorities, demand to know the reason behind both cases. They claimed the previous incident was "resolved behind closed doors".