A student of College of Technology on Osmania University campus ended his life on Tuesday rekindling pro-Telangana passions on the campus on Tuesday. Tension gripped the Gandhi hospital where autopsy was to be held, when the police caned students who tried to take out the body in a procession to the university.
Twenty-year-old Meegada Sai Kumar, in a suicide note purportedly written by him, stated that he was sacrificing his life for Telangana. “Without reposing the trust in politicians, the youth should achieve Telangana. Take out my funeral procession up to the Assembly,” the note said.
A second year student of Chemical Engineering branch, Kumar is from Kapugal village in Kodad mandal of Nalgonda. He told his roommate in the morning that he would not attend classes since he was going home for the Ugadi festival.
Doors of his room no. 108 were bolted from inside when his classmates returned. “We forcibly opened the doors and saw him hanging from the ceiling,” Amarender, his roommate, told reporters.
They rushed him to the Gandhi hospital believing he was still alive. But the doctors pronounced him dead on arrival. As the news spread, emotionally charged students began to assemble in large numbers at his hostel and Arts College. Anticipating trouble, police rushed additional forces, including contingents of para-military units, to the campus sealing the Tarnaka and NCC gate entry points.
They did not allow students to come out of the campus, but the latter managed to reach the hospital through other routes. Tension escalated as students did not allow shifting of the body to the morgue for post-mortem.
The students argued that they should be allowed to take the body to Gun Park in Secunderabad and then to the campus. Even as police officers were holding discussions with some student leaders, a group attempted to take the body to the main road. Police had to use force to disperse them.
