Chennai's Satyabhama University witnessed quite some violence on the night of Wednesday, November 22, after a first-year student was found hanging in her hostel room. The deceased, identified as 18-year-old Duvvuru Monica Reddy of Andhra Pradesh, is said to have committed suicide after she was caught cheating during an exam and was reprimanded for the same.
After the news broke, students of the university went on a rampage and set fire to the hostel building and damaged its lights and other electrical fixtures. About 300 students are said to have agitated at the campus and are also torched hostel furniture and mattresses. Fire fighters had to be called in to extinguish the blaze.
Tamil Nadu: First-year students at Sathyabama University had set fire to college property following the incident; Armed police was later deployed for security outside the college. pic.twitter.com/yPZTUfliPh
— ANI (@ANI) November 22, 2017
After the violence, a police team conducted an inquiry, but no arrests have been made yet. Heavy security involving about 200 policemen have now been deployed at the campus, reported Times Now.
Post the incident, the campus has been shut down for a week and students residing on the campus have been asked to vacate and go home.
"When we interrogated the protesting students, they had first condemned the university for its tough curriculum, lack of facilities in the hostel and then talked about the student's suicide. We are monitoring the situation closely" the site quoted Chennai police commissioner AK Vishwanathan as saying.
The girl was reportedly caught cheating during a chemistry exam from a 10x12 paper and the invigilator had asked her to leave the room after rebuking her for the same. "The invigilator informed other officials and she was asked to leave the hall," a police officer explained.
The girl then went back to her hostel and sent an SMS to her twin who was also writing an exam. Her brother saw the message only after he came out of the exam hall and rushed to the hostel, but by then the girl had already hung herself.
The body has now been sent to Royapettah government hospital for post-mortem.
Meanwhile, this is not the first time that the Satyabhama University had to face a situation like this and students, in the past, have protested against several restrictions such as dress code and its regulations on interaction with the other gender to name a few.
