In one of the most regrettable and tragic incidents that sent shockwaves across the city of Bengaluru recently, 19-year-old Aditya Prabhu jumped from the eighth floor of his college building.
The B Tech (Computer Science Engineering) student from PES University, Bengaluru died by suicide on the campus after he was allegedly caught for malpractice during an examination on Monday.
As per the police report, the incident occurred after the examination on Monday, July 17 between 12.45 and 1 pm. According to the police, the college administration maintains that the student was caught with a mobile phone in an examination hall and was therefore sent out.
Grieving mother's harrowing account
A few days after finding her bearings from the tragedy, the mother of Aditya Prabhu has come out to share her side of the story. In a detailed post shared on Instagram, she narrates the sequence of events leading up to discovering the dead body.
Clearly mentioned Aaditya's details, age, semester, she says, "On July 17th Aditya jumped from 8th floor of a building in the campus and committed suicide. The college announced to the media that Aditya was caught cheating and copying during examination. He was detained. He was counseled and when he was told that parents would be informed, he jumped from the building. I want to tell our side of the story here."
[Suicide is preventable, please seek counselling here]
The post continues, "I got a call from Aditya at 11.45 am July 17th. He told me that he forgot to put the phone back in his bag and the phone remained in his pant pocket. He remembered it halfway through the exam and himself took it and kept it away from him either on the bench or the floor (I can't remember his exact words). And the phone was in airplane mode. The invigilator saw it and detained him. He wrote the full exam."
Accusing college authorities of mental harassment and negligent attitude, the mother continues, "Adtiya also told that they are harassing him, they told him it's better to die than do such things and asked me to come to college. After some time, I got a call from his mentor in college asking me to come. Later I got to know from students in the class that the invigilators saw the mobile at 11.26 am only with 4 minutes remaining for the end of the exam. When I reached there, no one was in the office and I was told to wait. I waited for nearly 1 hour and mentor and COE arrived."
The lengthy post, then onwards narrates the trauma of a mother. "I was called into the office and they started looking for Aditya. They said they had told Aditya to sit there. They asked around a bit, everyone said he was sitting there. They told me he must be roaming around with friends. I said it's impossible he'll do that when such serious charges are lodged against him. I started demanding that they look in cctv cameras for him and that he might be in danger if he wasn't sitting there. They still kept telling me he is out with friends. After some time, they started making some calls. And then they rushed out. I followed them. We walked quite a lot and came to the other end of the campus."
"I could see ambulance and police already there. That is when I started shouting what had happened to my son. On shouting a lot I was informed that he isn't alive. I asked them to take him to hospital and try and revive him. What I was told next is unbelievable...I was told that I need to recognise him first and sign a statement and then they will take him to hospital and try and revive him. Even though I was alone, they took me ( 2 or 3 of them holding me) to recognise my son's body. Which is absolutely inhuman when I think about it now. Once I agreed that it's Aditya, they gave me something to sign and told them that as soon as I sign, they will take him to hospital. Again and again I was pressured to sign."
The college authorities are yet to respond to the social media post of Aditya's mother.
College authorities accused of abetment, negligence
Aditya's father, Ganesh Prabhu is an employee at a private company, and has filed a complaint at Girinagar Police Station against the college management holding the principal, invigilator and other members of the administration responsible for his son's death.
The father's complaint, filed on Monday, mentions that his son carried mobile phone into the examination hall unknowingly and it was on flight mode as per the examination rules. Holding the college authorities responsible under IPC Section 306, the complaint also alleges that they mentally harassed his son instead of providing him with a chance to explain or prove himself.
"His phone was confiscated, he was taken out of the class and he was left unattended after the mental harassment. When my wife went to the college, they were clueless about his whereabouts," says the complaint. Further investigation into the matter is on.
