Hyderabad: cUoH PhD scholar commits suicide

• Fourth suicide on the campus this year
• He was upset over not being provided with a guide for last three years

Hyderabad: A 26-year-old PhD student committed suicide late on Saturday night by consuming poisonous liquid as he was allegedly depressed due to non-allotment of guide for his research programme. His extreme step was being attributed partly to loneliness at his room in Men’s Hostel K on the campus of the University of Hyderabad. He is the fourth student to commit suicide on the campus in the current academic year.

Madari Venkatesh, Ph D (Life science), third year, resorted to the extreme step by consuming a liquid prepared with ammonium phosphate pills and rat poison as he was upset over “not being provided” with a guide for his research programme. He was often noticed spending his time lonely at his room number 39 in the hostel located on the South Campus of the university, Chandanagar inspector N Vasu said. Being a student of the department of Advanced Centre for Research in High Energy Materials (ACRHEM), a DRDO supported Advanced Centre of Research, he was associated with different studies undertaken by the department.

Neighboring students in the hostel noticed Venkatesh lying on the ground and immediately shifted him to the Health Centre of the campus. As his condition deteriorated, on the advise of the doctors, he was rushed to a private hospital where the doctors declared that he was brought dead at 7 am.

The student is yet to finalise the topic for his research. He had dinner along with his friends at 11 am. One of his research papers was published in a science journal recently.

Based on a complaint lodged by Venkatesh’s family members, a case of suspicious death was registered. The body was handed over to kin of the deceased after conducting post-mortem at Gandhi Hospital. The police took Venkatesh’s mobile phone for analyzing call data.

Students stage dharna

Later in the day, around 100 students staged a dharna in front of the vice-chancellor’s guest house on the campus demanding action. The students alleged that no guide was allotted to Venkatesh even after completion of his third year. The V C, Prof. Ramakrishna Ramaswamy, assured the agitating students of action against people responsible for the incident. “The Prof. Krishna committee, constituted for probing into the suicide of Pulyala Raju and recommending steps in order to avoid re-occurrence of such incidents, would also be looking into the issue," registrar, Prof. Rajasekhar said. We have not received representation either from him or any other student body over the non -allotment of the guide for him.

Following retirement of Prof. Tiwari, alternative arrangements were being made. Police Investigationwill reveal what prompted him to commit suicide, he added.

Earlier, relatives of the deceased protested before the private hospital alleging that their kin was “harassed” by a professor of the institution and demanded for justice.

He hails from Lingampally village in Ibrahimpatnam mandal of Ranga Reddy district.