The Sri Venkateswara Medical College campus remained surcharged on Wednesday, following the suicide of B. Shilpa, a post-graduate medical student of paediatrics, at her residence in Piler town.
The three-member inquiry committee comprising Director of Medical Education K. Babji, Kurnool Medical College Superintendent T. Chandrasekhar and Anantapur Medical College Obstetrics & Gynaecology professor Shamshad Begum held a marathon meeting, interacted with every student willing to depose before them and took note of the developments.
They also spoke to SVMC principal N.V. Ramanaiah, SVRR Government General Hospital Superintendent Sidda Naik among other officials to find out the chronology of events that led to a bizarre end.
The calm turned uneasy with the presence of the deceased student’s sobbing family members and the congregation of enraged students in large numbers.
The suicide came as a shock to the students and faculty members alike as it came in the aftermath of serious charges of harassment levelled by her against the department head Ravi Kumar and two senior professors some months back.
Though the State government had then intervened and conducted a probe, nothing much happened later. It is this sluggish pace of development and the ‘relative indifference’ that irked the students, who were in no mood to relent.
The PG students and junior doctors, who staged a demonstration outside the room where the meeting was on, were ready to accept nothing short of termination of services of Dr. Ravi Kumar and the demotion and transfer of the other two.
Nannapaneni visit
Following the intervention of Collector P.S. Pradyumna, the MCT Commissioner V. Vijayarama Raju held several rounds of parleys with the students till midnight on Tuesday.
Women’s Commission chairperson Nannapaneni Rajakumari, who visited the campus and interacted with the students, expressed shock at the incident and announced a probe into the harassment angle.
