JNU student's suicide: AIIMS doctors say no injury marks were found on his body
The Delhi Police had filed an FIR in the case earlier in the day.
The Delhi Police on Wednesday registered an FIR against unidentified people in connection with the alleged suicide of a Jawaharlal Nehru University student, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (South Delhi) Chinmoy Biswal said. The complaint has been filed for abetment to suicide and under the SC & ST Prevention of Atrocities Act.
Doctors at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences said they found no injury marks on his body and that he had died of asphyxiation. A five-member board had been set up to carry out the autopsy.
Meanwhile, the Opposition members in the Rajya Sabha demanded a thorough investigation into the case, reported The Hindu. The 27-year-old Dalit student, J Muthukrishnan, was found hanging from the ceiling of his friend’s house in South Delhi’s Munirka Vihar area on March 13. However, no suicide note was found on him.
Although the police have maintained that Muthukrishnan committed suicide because of personal reasons, in his last Facebook post, he had made several allegations of inequality against JNU. “There is no equality in MPhil/PhD Admission, there is no equality in Viva–voce, there is only denial of equality, denying Professor Sukhadeo Thorat recommendation, denying students protest places in Ad–block, denying the education of the marginals. When equality is denied, everything is denied,” he had written.
Communist Party of India MP D Raja raised the topic during the Zero Hour. “Why did this Dalit student in JNU take this drastic step?” asked Raja. Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam MPs Tiruchi Siva and Kanimozhi also joined him. “Dalit students are handicapped by several things... Economic deprivation and social discrimination,” said Siva. Janata Dal United leader Ali Anwar Ansari took the opportunity to raised the issue of missing JNU student Najeeb Ahmad.
Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman assured the House that the government will take all the steps necessary. She said she has met Muthukrishnan’s father and added that she has already submitted a report to Home Minister Rajnath Singh with the statements of professors, parents and friends.
Muthukrishnan’s family has also demanded an inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation. “We want a CBI investigation into his death. We know he won’t commit suicide,” his sister told India Today.
Muthukrishnan, a Dalit student from Salem district in Tamil Nadu, was pursuing an MPhil in Modern History at JNU. He had also studied at Hyderabad University, where Dalit research scholar Rohith Vemula was a student. Vemula had committed suicide in January 2016 and it led to countrywide protests against discrimination in universities.