6 deaths in 3 yrs, parents rattled

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 9

It was not Ananya Dixit’s time to die. She was 17 and was just starting on her dream journey to be a doctor. Within 10 days of joining Sri Ram Murti Smarak (SRMS) Institute of Medical Sciences, Bareilly, on August 27 last year, Ananya was dead. Her parents were told she had committed suicide by hanging herself from the hostel ceiling fan.

Like many other parents whose wards died mysteriously at the SRMS in the past, the Dixits never believed the suicide theory. Over the past three years alone, six students have died on the SRMS campus.

Five were alleged to have committed suicide though no suicide note was found in four cases. One was found dead in his hostel room, head on the table.

Starting 2002, there have been nine student deaths at this medical institute from where there is evidence of MBBS aspirants pulling out due to fear of “brutal ragging”. It’s only now that Uttar Pradesh Police, SRMS management, Medical Council of India and UP medical council are beginning to face some questions on what’s going on at the college.

The Supreme Court recently put state administration, SRMS authorities and UP DGP on notice in a petition filed by the Dixits who are demanding a CBI probe into all nine student deaths at this college.

On another petition by Ananya’s father Anadi Dixit, National Human Rights Commission has sought reports on all SRMS student deaths from UP Police besides sending a notice to UP Chief Secretary.

Anadi Dixit on Sunday told The Tribune that in every suicide reported by police at SRMS, there are strange similarities. “No suicide notes have been found in the deaths of my daughter and three other students who died between 2015 and 2017. In all cases SRMS management entered the room before the police. Post-mortem reports always suggested asphyxia. My daughter’s post-mortem shows her as 159 cms whereas she was just 148 cms tall. The local police were not probing fairly, which is what took us to the apex court. We are seeking a CBI probe into all nine student deaths at SRMS and de-licensing of the institute by the MCI.”

While Anadi Dixit is pursuing an FIR under Section 306 IPC (abetment to suicide), some other parents have registered cases of murders after their wards’ deaths.

Manoj Kumar, whose son Yash (a first-year MBBS student) was found hanging in his SRMS hostel on July 12, 2016, had pressed murder (Section 302 IPC) charges. “UP Police never took my statement. I learnt later that they had filed a chargesheet for suicide and closed the case,” Kumar said.

Bhiwani-based Ajit Singh whose daughter Priyanka, a third-year MBBS student, was found hanging in her hostel, says he gave up the fight after the police refused cooperation. “I wasn’t allowed to enter the hostel room. I was neither given my daughter’s cell phone nor her belongings,” he says.

After Ananya’s death on September 6, 2017, two more deaths were reported at SRMS — Laxmi Mehta, a nursing student, was found hanging in her hostel and Harshit Saxena was found dead in his hostel room on January 18.

Bareilly SP (Dehat) Dr Satish Kumar said Laxmi Mehta’s suicide note was found and blamed SRMS administration.

“Laxmi’s parents did not insist on a case and said she was under depression. In Ananya’s case we are about to file a chargesheet. I am not aware of past cases as I have just come here,” Kumar told TNS at a time when NHRC has been awaiting a UP Police report on all student deaths at the Bareilly institute. Shockingly enough, the state police didn’t act even on reported cases of ragging at the SRMS. One PG student, Vaibhav Mangla, had on June 10, 2017, written to Bhojipur police station against “brutal ragging by seniors” at the institute. Nothing came of it.

Now the Allahabad High Court is hearing a petition which accuses the SRMS of turning a blind eye to rampant campus ragging.

The petition is from Ananya’s batch mate Arpit Agarwal, who left SRMS a day after Ananya’s alleged suicide. It talks of Arpit being a witness to Ananya’s ragging on the campus and documents other forms of campus harassment as well.