New Delhi, The Supreme Court has been informed that the Sharda University in Greater Noida, where a girl student allegedly committed suicide, did not register the FIR in the incident but her parents did and that security guards brought down her body hanging from the ceiling fan of her hostel. Sharda University didn’t file FIR on student’s suicide, SC informed

The information was given in a status report filed by senior advocate Aparna Bhatt, who has been appointed amicus curiae in the matter by the apex court to assist it.

A bench headed by Justice J B Pardiwala is likely to hear the case on Monday.

In her 30-page report, Bhatt said that in the incident related to Sharda University, the FIR was registered by the parents and not by the university, and two persons named in the suicide note have been arrested.

The report also said that postmortem revealed death by asphyxiation, and the investigation is ongoing and would be completed soon.

In the detailed report, the amicus curiae gave a sequence of events and different versions of information available of the incident and pointed out that the immediate cause of concern was a complaint by faculty member Dr Mahinder Singh Chauhan that the deceased had forged the signatures of her teachers in the manual that documents the practical work and is monitored by the teachers with regard to progress made.

“Upon further questioning, the university officials admitted that the warden did not call anyone – neither university authorities, nor the police or the hospital for an ambulance. The body was brought down by the security guards and carried out on a bedsheet by four hostel staff members. The warden eventually called the parents to tell them their daughter was in a serious condition in the emergency room ; it is assumed that other students had already informed the parents.

“No call to the PCR was made…The body was taken to a government hospital in Noida for PMR and later taken by the family for last rites. The family has not been in touch with the university or the police since then,” the report said.

The status report also gave the police version in which they claimed that a series of protocols to be followed in such cases were violated by the university staff.

“The body has to be moved by the police, but the university staff took it upon themselves to do that. The scene was thus compromised because the warden entered and multiple people left fingerprints in the room. Secondly, the university hospital issued the medico-legal certificate to the police, which is also against protocol. However, the officers clarified, the MLC only mentioned that she had no pulse and so on, but no internal examination of the body was conducted by the university hospital,” the report said.

Similarly, Bhatt also gave the status of investigation in IIT-Kharagpur case where a fourth year mechanical engineering student allegedly committed suicide.

The report said the FIR was registered by the university in which no one named as accused, postmortem contents are not known and investigation status is also not known as the police did not respond.

The report said according to the information shared by the registrar, the deceased student had a good CGP and there was a slight dip in his grade in the last semester of third year but the same was not significant.

Bhatt said despite repeated attempts, the police officer could not be contacted and hence the status of the investigation cannot be reported.

“The Amicus is informed by the Registrar of IIT Kharagpur that a post mortem was conducted but they are not aware of the findings,” the report said.

On July 21, the top court took suo motu cognisance of the students’ deaths in both these institutes and asked the amicus curiae to submit a status report with regard to the incidents.

It had noted that a fourth year mechanical engineering student of the IIT, Kharagpur allegedly committed suicide three days after he returned to the institute after two-month summer break and was pursuing a five-year dual degree programme.

The bench had also noted that it is the fourth unnatural death at the institute in the past seven months.

Similarly, the top court had noted that in Sharda University a 21-year-old bachelor of dental surgery second-year student allegedly committed suicide leaving behind a suicide note.

The bench said, “We would like to know how promptly the FIRs were registered in both the cases. We would also like to know who registered the FIRs. We would also like to know how promptly the management of the IIT, Kharagpur and Sharda University acted no sooner they learnt about the suicides. We would also like to know what has the preliminary investigation undertaken so far revealed in both the cases.”

The top court has taken serious note of students’ suicide in institutions of higher learning, and in March set up a national task force to address the mental health concerns of students and prevent such incidents.

On July 14, it had asked for a status report from the police in three states on the investigation over the suicides by students of IIT-Delhi, IIT-Kharagpur and a NEET aspirant in Kota, Rajasthan.

The top court in its March 24 verdict appointed former apex court judge Justice S Ravindra Bhat as the chairperson of the NTF and said secretaries of a state’s higher education department, social justice and empowerment and legal affairs apart from the ministry of women and child development would be its ex-officio members.

This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.