Was it the ragging in the hostel that prompted the BJ medical college student to want to take her life? Or was it instead, the supposed embarrassment of having been caught stealing, that drove her to slit both her wrists, at her residence at Limbdi on Thursday night?
The reasons behind the second year MBBS student from BJ attempting suicide remain unclear. While the NSUI and the girl's parents cite ragging as the reason, college officials are saying the girl is a kleptomaniac.
When DNA contacted NSUI students, they claimed the institute's version to be completely false. State NSUI vice-president Bhavin Sinh Rathod said, "Our representatives got in touch with the girl and her parents, and found out that the institute wanted to suppress the girl's complaint of ragging against her seniors. They even forced the girl to remain mum and not reveal the matter to anyone. The depression led her to take the extreme step of attempting suicide."
According to reliable sources, the girl's parents, in their testimonial to the police, have stated harassment by the institute as the reason behind their daughter's attempt to kill herself.
As a protest against the institute, NSUI student members carried out a demonstration at the BJ Medical College's main office at around 2 pm on Friday, ransacking the premises and breaking chairs, glasses and computers.
However, officials of the BJ medical college denied any possible ragging. The college's dean Bharat Shah said, "The incident today was triggered by a wrong media report which claimed that the girl attempted suicide because of ragging."
Alleging that the girl suffered from kleptomania, Shah said, "On May 26, around 40 students complained that the girl has been continuously stealing things from the others in the hostel. When the hostel committee searched her room, they found the stolen clothes, mobile phones and ATM cards."
Shah added that following the incident, the girl's parents were summoned to the institute, and they confessed in writing about the stealing. "They volunteered to vacate the hostel themselves, though we didn't ask them to leave", he said, adding, "The incident has nothing to do with ragging at all."
As for the girl, after initial treatment at a local hospital in Limbdi, she was shifted to the Ahmedabad civil hospital.
