37-year-old Parashuram Janagiri, an Assistant Professor at Agro Forestry Department in University of Agricultural Sciences, Raichur (UAS-R), committed suicide due to work pressure and harassment by subordinates at about 1 a.m. on Friday.
Mr. Janagiri committed suicide by consuming a highly poisonous pesticide at his quarters in the University campus. He was rushed to the teaching hospital attached to Raichur Institute of Medial Sciences when the incident came to light at 4 a.m., but the doctors declared him as brought dead. He was a native of Ranebennur town in Haveri district. He is survived by his wife, Radhika and two children, Anupama (4) and Anuraga (2).
The suicide-note found beside his body clearly held two people, Ravi Patil, a research assistant and B.H. Attanur, a field assistant, both working as subordinates to the deceased, responsible for the suicide. It also mentioned the work pressure on him as well as his helplessness in meeting expectations.
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As the news spread, teaching and non-teaching staff and hundreds of students, boycotting their classes, marched to the office of Deputy Commissioner and staged a demonstration demanding stringent action against those who abetted the man to commit suicide.
“He (Parashuram Janagiri) shared the harassment details with his colleagues. He had even orally complained to his superiors, particularly, Director of Research, and Vice-Chancellor of UAS-R. There were no concrete steps by the University to address the issues,” said an Assistant Professor at UAS-R, maintaining anonymity.
According to the sources at UAS-R, Parashuram Janagiri was assigned to teach at the University’s agricultural colleges at Kalaburagi, Bheemarayanagudi in Yadgir district and Raichur’s main campus apart from heading a bio-fuel park at Thinthini in Raichur-Yadgir border.
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“He was continuously on travel for teaching University’s agricultural colleges in three districts,” one of the his colleges said.
“It is unfortunate. He had (Parashuram Janagiri) casually brought the issue of harassment to my notice a week ago. He neither gave a written complaint nor explained the severity of the issue. However, we orally reprimanded and warned those who were allegedly harassing,” Prakash M. Salimath, Vice-Chancellor of UAS-R, told The Hindu .
As for work pressure, the VC clarified that it was not specific to one person in the University.
“Most of us are working under pressure owing to human resources issues and it was not specific to Parashuram Janagiri alone. We did give more assignments to many teaching staff, including him, considering their experience, expertise and efficiency. However, he never, either orally or in writing, complained to us about pressure,” Mr. Salimath said.
Action
Swiftly acting upon the suicide-note, the Vice-Chancellor put B.H. Attanur, who was regular staff, under suspension and dismissed Ravi Patil, who was a casual labourer.
On the other hand, following a written complaint lodged by Radhika, wife of the deceased, Raichur West police have registered a case and arrested Ravi Patil and B.H. Attanur under Section 306 of Indian Penal Code (Abetment of suicide).