Student suicides stun Ranchi

Mala Singh’s residence at Sukhdev Nagar in Ranchi on Saturday. (Hardeep Singh) .Mala Singh (below) Ranchi, Nov. 5: The state capital witnessed two more student suicides today in a bizarre sequence of events barely 24 hours after a BIT-Mesra boy of 21 years hanged himself in his hostel room yesterday. Mala Singh (21), a final year BTech computer science student of Birsa Institute of Technology (Trust) on Ratu Road, was found hanging from a ceiling fan in her room at her Sukhdev Nagar home around 10am. She did not explain her action in the note she left behind. Anuj Mehta (21), an I.Sc Part I student of Gossner College, ended his life in similar fashion at his room in a lodge at Lohrakocha on H.B.Road under Lalpur police station late in the evening. His suicide note mentioned a failed relationship as the reason for taking the extreme step. Mala Singh left behind a laconic note in which she only begged forgiveness from her father without explaining anything else. “In every lifetime, I want a father like you. But forgive me, as I am frustrated with my life and ending it,” she wrote in her final message. Anuj Mehta Anuj, too, apologised to his parents for his action. “Mummy, papa sorry. You have given me a lot of love. I was in a relationship with a girl. She, too, loved me a lot. But now she doesn’t love me anymore… sorry…” he wrote in Hindi using English alphabets. Born in Aurangabad, Maharashtra, Mala stayed with her parents at a rented house and was raised in Ranchi. Her father, R.K. Singh, an employee of Sahara Life Insurance, was at a loss for words. He said Mala appeared absolutely normal before he left for office at 8:15am. “She served us tea and we had breakfast together. Only God knows what happened thereafter. I left for office and suddenly got a call from my wife about the incident. … it will haunt us forever,” said an inconsolable Singh. Those who knew Mala at BITT said she was a bright student with a great sense of humour. Studies, they said, might not have been a reason behind her death. “She was pursuing a distance learning programme in computer science and was one of the best students of her batch. She achieved distinction in her earlier semester tests and in internal examinations, too,” said Vinay Kumar Singh, a senior official of BITT, who met her three months ago. “She had stopped coming for classes, saying she was planning to venture out for training. We believe she went to Calcutta for an internship,” added Vinay Kumar. Officer in charge of Sukhdev Nagar police station Kamal Kishore said they were yet to find out details from Mala’s parents. “We will talk to the victim’s parents later, as now is not the right time to question them,” he said. Kishore said the police, who had gone to the house, had retrieved the body. He pieced together a probable sequence of events. “After having breakfast, she went into her room, locked the door and hanged herself. Her mother called her for some work. When there was no response, she walked up to the room and found it locked. With the help of neighbours, she managed to break open the door and found the girl hanging,” he said. Mala’s body has been sent to Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences for post-mortem. Anuj’s body was discovered around 7.30pm by a lodge employee when he went to his room with dinner. “This man raised an alarm. We ran to the room along with neighbours to see him hanging from the ceiling fan,” said the owner of the lodge, Prabhu Gupta, who lives on the ground floor and also runs a shop. Anuj, a resident of Redma in Daltonganj, returned to Ranchi last night after a vacation. His roommate, however, was yet to return. Gupta said he seemed fine and had even bought a few personal items like an ointment and SIM from his shop. “He said hello to me and my wife like he did whenever he met us,” he said, adding that they called in the police immediately. Anuj’s father, R. P. Mehta, who was a munshi in Rohtas, Bihar, had been informed. Lalpur police is investigating the case. Yesterday, Arnab Mukherjee, a final-year BArch student, committed suicide at his BIT-Mesra hostel room yesterday, probably a fallout of academic pressure in the face of parental expectations. Mukherjee’s last rights were performed at Harmu Mukti Dham today. His father N.N. Mukherjee, relatives and some BIT-Mesra faculty members were present at the cremation ground.