Just days after writing a post on inequality, 27-year-old Dalit MPhil student at JNU Muthu Krishnan was found having allegedly committed suicide in south Delhi’s Munirka area Monday evening.
Muthu, who was known to friends on Facebook as Krish Rajini, was from Salem, Tamil Nadu. He was a student at the University of Hyderabad when fellow Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula committed suicide in January 2016 and had blogged about meeting Rohith and his mother, Radhika.
South Delhi DCP Ishwar Singh on Tuesday termed the death an “unfortunate incident.” Gomen Kim, a South Korean national, and two other students — Lakshyajeet and Issac — broke open the door of Gomen’s room around 5 p.m. and found “’Krish”’ hanging, Mr. Singh told journalists.
“We searched the room but no suicide note was found. We went to his hotel room but did not find anything there either. We will make forensic teams search the rooms again,” Mr. Singh said.
“There is no Equality in M.phil/PhD Admission, there is no equality in Viva – voce, there is an only denial of equality, denying Prof Sukhadeo Thorat recommendation, denying students protest places in Ad – block, denying the education of the Marginal’s.
“When Equality is denied everything is denied,” he wrote in a Facebook post on March 10.
amil Nadu’s various political parties, including the AIADMK and the DMK, on Tuesday expressed concern over the death of a JNU student hailing from the state and sought a probe into the matter.
AIADMK deputy general secretary T T V Dinakaran said Muthu Krishnan’s death at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University and his references to “inequality” has sent “shock waves” across the state Referring to Krishnan’s links to a movement in support of “justice” for deceased Dalit research scholar Rohit Vemula in Hyderabad last year, Dinakaran said, “There are strong doubts if he really committed suicide, considering he was strong.”
“Therefore, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal should take special interest and order for a proper probe and bring the facts to light. The culprits should not be spared at any cost,” he said in a statement.
If the death was a suicide, there should be counselling classes for students in educational institutions to prevent the recurrence of such incidents, he said, expressing sympathies with Krishnan’s family.
DMK working president and Leader of Opposition M K Stalin also expressed concern over Krishnan’s death.
He questioned the suicide angle behind the student’s death and cited the statement of the victim’s father that his son could not have taken the extreme step.
“The Delhi police cannot brush aside the fact that Krishnan was one of those who had sought justice for Vemula, and his Facebook post on inequality also cannot be ignored,” he said.
