A 20-year-old engineering student allegedly committed suicide by jumping before a moving train at Attibele village near Devanahalli on Saturday. In his suicide note V Alok Ranjan said his college seniors had ragged him over his love for a girl in their college.
The students of Nagarjuna College of Engineering and Technology at Mudagurki village on Hyderabad Road staged a protest following the death. They blocked Hyderabad Road (NH 7) for 30 minutes as part of their protest against the college management for failing to stop ragging in the institution.
Bangalore Rural and Chikkaballapur police had to use a mild lathi charge to avoid any untoward incident and clear the road.
Ranjan, a native of Darbhanga in Bihar and a resident of Devanahalli, was a fourth-semester student of BE Electronic Communication.
Deputy superintendent of police (railway) Mir Arif Ali said police had received information that a young person died on the railway track between Devanahalli and Avathi village around 9 am.
Ranjan’s body and suicide note were found at the scene.
“We have seized the letter and are verifying the reason behind his extreme step,” Ali said. Byappanahalli railway police have registered an unnatural death report (UDR) in connection with the incident and started investigation. They shifted the body to Bowring Hospital for the postmortem, which will be held after Ranjan’s father reaches the city. “We have informed his parents and will hand over the body to them after the postmortem,” Ali said.
A police source said in his suicide note Ranjan wrote that he was in love with a girl studying in the college and on Friday some senior students had ragged him about this. He had an argument with them regarding the matter and it came to the notice of the college management. He feared that disciplinary action might be taken against him, which made him take the decision to commit suicide.
Police said Ranjan might have committed suicide around 8 am and the passenger train from Bangalore City to Chikkaballabur might have run over him. His head was found separated from his body on the tracks.
Police will question the college management to find out what exactly happened in the college and if they had decided to take disciplinary action against the students involved in the ragging and the argument after it, including Ranjan. The protesting students claimed that Ranjan did not commit suicide but was murdered.
