An year after Rohith Vemula, another Dalit research scholar from JNU commits suicide

The police said it was not yet sure if discrimination at the university was a factor in his death

By: News Desk |
March 14, 2017 8:55 am

A 27-year-old research scholar from Delhi’s prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University was found dead in the city’s Munirka area on Monday evening. His body was found hanging from ceiling of his room apparently he had committed suicide, the police said.

J. Muthukrishnan, who had a Masters’ Degree from Hyderabad University was an MPhil student in JNU. Police has not found any suicide note and suspect that he may have taken his life due to personal issues.

Muthukrishnan’s death came over a year after the suicide of Dalit research scholar, Rohith Vemula for alleged discrimination against backward castes , that snowballed into a major controversy and became a major headache for the BJP ruled central government.

In one of his last Facebook posts, Krish, a Dalit, had spoken against discrimination. “There is no equality in MPhil/PhD admission, there is no equality in viva-voce, there is only denial of equality… denying students protest places in ad (administrative) block, denying the education of the marginals. When equality is denied everything is denied (sic),” he wrote.

But the police said it was not yet sure if discrimination at the university was a factor in his death, Press Trust of India reported.

Police reached the spot and found the room locked from inside, which they forced open to find the deceased hanging from ceiling.

The MPhil student is said to have gone out to have food at his friend’s house and locked his room from inside after returning from there on the pretext of sleeping.

Police are trying to find the reason behind his taking the extreme step, a police officer said.

“We are deeply saddened as one of our fellow students has committed suicide at his friend’s residence in Munirka Vihar just outside JNU campus. It’s an irreparable loss. May the departed soul rest in peace,” ABVP leader Saurabh Sharma said in a statement.