: Ragging raised its ugly head in Telangana again on Tuesday when an engineering student from Adilabad district ended his life ‘dejected over ragging by seniors’ by jumping before a moving train at Vaddepally here.
A note purportedly written by the victim, Vadlapalli Sainath, and recovered by the police suggested that ragging by seniors drove him to resort to the extreme step. “Please stop the ragging” was the first of the two sentences written by the student in the note, Warangal railway police Inspector A. Madhusudhan told The Hindu .
The second sentence in Telugu stated that he would not have reached ‘this situation’ (of committing suicide) had the seniors not done like that on a particular day, according to the Inspector. Railway personnel saw the victim’s body and alerted the police around 11.40 p.m. on Monday.
After the arrival of the student’s parents, who identified him on Tuesday, police shifted the body to MGM morgue in Warangal where autopsy was performed. Son of a mason, Kanakaiah hailing from Ramakrishnapuram of Mandamarri mandal, Sainath joined CMR Engineering College at Medchal on Hyderabad outskirts, a month ago.
His elder brother, Raghunath, too was pursuing engineering course but in another private college at Ibrahimpatnam. Both the siblings went to the house of their sister living in Borabanda on Sunday to celebrate the ‘Rakhi’ festival. He returned to his college hostel that night and was last seen around 3 p.m. on Monday.
He must have reached Warangal the same evening, and ended his life late in the night, the railway police said.
“My brother had complained to us that he was unable to bear the ragging by his seniors. He also complained to the college authorities but in vain,” said Raghunath, crying inconsolably. He felt that it was high time the government woke up and ensured that other youngsters didn’t fall prey to ragging.
A crest-fallen Kanakaiah recalled that his son was intelligent and hard working. “I never expected that he would do this. He didn’t tell me anything,” he said in choked voice.
The railway police registered a case of suspicious death.
The Medchal police of Cyberabad, under whose jurisdiction Sainath’s college falls, are probing with the college administration as to what drove the student to resort to the extreme step. “We will initiate criminal action against persons responsible for his death after ascertaining facts,” Petbasheerabad ACP S. Ashok Kumar said.
