New Delhi: The Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University (GGSIPU) has formed an inquiry committee to investigate the suicide of a 25-year-old student. This comes as students continue protesting for a second day. The student, reportedly distressed by his expulsion from the hostel, took his own life on Sunday.
The university has also removed the hostel warden and set up a committee to provide an ex gratia payment to the family of the deceased student, Gautam Kumar, from the students’ welfare fund, a university official told PTI.
Students have been staging a sit-in outside the vice-chancellor’s office, carrying posters demanding “Justice for Gautam.” Gautam Kumar was a first-year MBA student enrolled at the GGSIPU’s main campus in Dwarka Sector-16, Southwest Delhi. He was a native of Vaishali, Bihar.
Classes at the university remain suspended as large sections of students have been protesting since Monday morning, demanding accountability from the administration. The students allege that the hostel warden wrongly expelled Kumar and five others for reportedly consuming alcohol and narcotics in their hostel room on September 14, causing them severe distress.
In a statement, the acting vice-chancellor, A.K. Saini, said that a professor from the University School of Law and Legal Studies (USL&LS) has been relieved of his duties as the warden. A fact-finding committee has been constituted to investigate the circumstances leading to Kumar’s death.
Vinay Shah, an Assistant Professor from the University School of Chemical Technology (USCT), has been assigned the additional responsibility of warden for the hostel.
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A purported WhatsApp message sent by Kumar to his parents before his death has surfaced on social media, in which he allegedly blamed the hostel warden for his decision to take his own life. The police are working to verify the authenticity of the message, but no FIR has been registered as the family has not filed a complaint.
The university administration has formed an internal committee to investigate the incident, and the police say their priority is to maintain law and order on campus while awaiting the findings of the inquiry.
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