Tamil Nadu: Engineeering student commits suicide, blames HoD in suicide note

Chennai: A final year engineering student committed suicide at his residence in Madambakkam on Tuesday night allegedly over harassment by his head of department (HoD) for the last six months. A suicide note has been recovered from his house in which the boy accused his college staff for abetting his suicide.

B. Hemant Chandran (21) was found hanging by his mother Sheela when she returned home after work around 7. 30 pm. He was pursuing a degree in mechanical engineering at New Prince Shri Bhavani College of Engineering at Vengaivasal near Medavakkam.

Preliminary investigations revealed that the boy had pointed out a mistake by one of the professors during class about six months ago, which triggered the beginning of the harassment.

The professor, head of a department, allegedly began targeting the student selectively so much so that the latter told his parents that he would discontinue from college. The boy's mother even met with college management and sought to solve the issue.

Meanwhile, the student learnt



on Tuesday that he has been denied hall ticket for the upcoming semester exams following which he took the extreme step. The deceased is the only son of the couple, Babu-Sheela. Babu works as a tailor while his wife works as a stenographer at a private firm.

On Tuesday, when his parents were away at work, Hemant Kumar hanged himself to death using a nylon rope. Selayur Police rushed to the scene and moved his body to Chromepet government general hospital for post-mortem. In a single page suicide note addressed to his parents, the boy accused his HoD of targeting him with spite. "I wished to study and complete college. But, I couldn't bring myself to continue in this college. As challenged by the HoD, he is making my life difficult in college. Forgive me, mother!" read an excerpt from the suicide note.

Meanwhile, the college declared holiday on Wednesday fearing backlash from students and heavy police security was deployed outside the college. Selayur police have registered a case and are investigating.