Another PES University student dies by suicide

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: Another student of PES University died after he allegedly jumped from the sixth floor of a building in the university's Electronic City campus here.

The deceased was identified as Vignesh K, 19, who was pursuing first year BBA at the university. It was learnt that the student hailed from Dindigul in Tamil Nadu and was residing in Begur in Bengaluru.

According to sources, the incident took place on Tuesday evening. Based on the complaint filed by the student's father, the Parappana Agrahara police have taken up a case of unnatural death in the matter.

So far the probe has revealed that Vignesh was last seen sitting in the college canteen when his friends departed to their respective houses after the class.

The students stated to the police that Vignesh had attended the class on Tuesday but stayed back at the canteen.

Around 4:15 pm, the canteen staff claimed to have asked Vignesh to go to his house. A few minutes later, the student allegedly jumped from one of the buildings in the university premises.

The police said that the exact reason for his extreme step could not be ascertained yet.

"We have collected the material evidence and are currently scanning the CCTV footage from the college premises to ascertain the cause," an official said.

The authorities of the university were unavailable for any comment on the matter.

Second death in seven months

This is the second such death in the last seven months. Last year on July 17, a 19-year-old B Tech student Aditya Prabhu committed suicide after allegedly being detained and subjected to verbal harassment for inadvertently carrying a mobile phone into the examination hall.

Following investigation in to Prabhu's case, the Bengaluru police have chargesheeted three faculty member including professors Ajay Massand and Karthik S along with a controller of examinations Kannan PS, for abetment to suicide under Indian Penal Code section 306.

In a statement released on Wednesday, PES University said Vignesh was a first year BBA student with a good academic record.

“It should be noted that the university does not have any exams or any measured academic activity for the BBA programme at this point of time in the calendar,” the statement said.

“Vignesh also participated in these one-on-one mentorship sessions and none of these sessions showed any red flags. This observation is prompting us to explore his personal space.

"These observations have been shared with the authorities. All the mentorship notes regarding Vignesh will be shared with the authorities to see if it could give us some clues to help find the root cause and help to prevent it in future,” the statement further said.