Harassment by Principal led to suicide?

Indore, Sep 23 (UNI) Even as the education sector reels under the blow dealt by Prof Harbhajan Singh Sabharwal's senseless slaying in Ujjain, students took to the streets in Madhya Pradesh's commercial capital alleging that harassment meted out by a principal led to a student's suicide.

The ABVP blocked a road in front of the Holkar Science College in the wake of last Thursday's suicide by BSc final year student Ashok Chaudhry who, along with two others, had been handed over to personnel from Bhanwarkua Police Station by Principal N K Dhakad after allegedly indulging in ragging on Wednesday.

The Parishad was demanding the Principal's suspension, stern action against the ''errant'' police personnel, registering a case againt the Youth Congress (YC) that was allegedly ''responsible for the circumstances'' leading to the suicide, ex gratia of Rs 1 lakh each from the university fund and a like amount from the government.

The four-hour-long blockade was lifted after Collector Vivek Agrawal and SP Anshuman Yadav assured a magisterial inquiry and recommended that the Principal be either asked to proceed on leave or be transferred until the probe was completed.

Chaudhry, who hailed from Mandsaur, and the others were detained until nightfall before being released on the Principal's intervention. Chaudhry went missing the very next day and his corpse, severed by a train, was identified last night by relatives.

''I intervened and asked the police to free the trio as there was no writen complaint of ragging and I was concerned over the students' future,'' said Mr Dhakad.

The YC staged demonstrations yesterday, at the college and the police station, over the release of the trio. Chaudhry's friends and the two other previously-detained students said Chaudhry could never indulge in ragging and he committed suicide as he was tormented by the sequence of events. However, no suicide note was found.

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