A student of the Government Dental College in Hyderabad, who reportedly attempted suicide near Sri Varahalakshminarasimha Swamy temple atop Simhachalam on Friday night and was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit at Bhavnagar ward of King George Hospital, is now out of danger, the student’s father said on Saturday.
B. Venkatesh, who came to visit his parents during Sankranti, consumed pesticide after calling up his friends and his brother at IIT Rourkela, informing them that he was committing suicide as he was unable to bear the harassment he faced from his orthodontics professor, J. Chandulal.
His father, Subba Rao, who runs a photocopy shop at Sriharipuram alleged that Dr. Chandulal was holding a grudge against his son after he had lodged a complaint with the Principal of the college that he was not teaching well.
According to him, when Venkatesh could not appear for one of the four papers during the March 2012 examination at the end of his fourth year, Dr. Chandulal refused to allow him to appear for study hours for 15 days and told him to wait for six months.
Principal intervenes
He did not budge in spite of the intervention of the Principal of the college, Vice-Chancellor of NTR University of Health Sciences and even Health Minister Kondru Muralimohana Rao, said Mr. Subba Rao.
During an argument on May 18, Dr. Chandulal hit Venkatesh but filed a case against the student. Venkatesh was arrested and was later released on bail.
A complaint lodged by Venkatesh was registered and an FIR filed but the police did not arrest Dr. Chandulal, said Mr. Subba Rao. “Venkatesh lost one year,” his father lamented.
After the fourth year, the dental students have another six months of their course pending and six months of internship.
Staff Reporter writes from Hyderabad:
The news of the suicide bid by Venkatesh has left students and teachers here shell-shocked. Venkatesh reportedly got involved in an altercation with Prof. Chandu Lal over the issue of attendance shortage, due to which he was not allowed to appear for the examinations.
“There was a police case on the student because he manhandled and threatened one of the Professors of the college. In fact, the N.T.R. Health University had suspended him because of the police case. We did not see him in the campus in the last eight months,” says Principal of Osmania Dental College, P. Bal Reddy.
