Dalit JNU scholar who was found dead had led Rohith Vemula movement

Team Udayavani, Mar 14, 2017, 1:29 PM IST

New Delhi: The Dalit JNU scholar who allegedly committed suicide had previously been a student of the Hyderabad University and was at the forefront of the movement against the varsity’s administration following the suicide of Rohith Vemula.

Twenty-eight-year-old Muthu Krishnan, who was from Tamil Nadu’s Salem district, completed his MPhil from the University of Hyderabad (UoH) in 2015 before joining JNU for his PhD. The deceased student, a resident of JNU’s Jhelum hostel, was found hanging from the ceiling fan of a friend’s residence in South Delhi’s Munirka area yesterday.

The JNU Students Union (JNUSU) is alleging that Krishnan was targeted for his association with the movement seeking justice for Rohith Vemula and depression made him take the extreme step.

While Krishnan has not left any suicide note, a recent Facebook post by him criticising “discriminatory” admission policies in JNU is being widely circulated on social media.

“There is no Equality in M.phil/phd Admission, there is no equality in Viva – voce, there is 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 the Facebook post on March 10. Police, on the other hand, is maintaining that no prima facie evidence has been found indicating JNU administration’s role into the issue.

“Till now no evidence has been found that the extreme step was taken by the student owing to any issues at the university,” said a senior police officer, adding, “he is said to have been depressed for sometime over some personal issues”.

“A PCR call was received at 5.05 PM yesterday that a person had locked himself in a room at a house in Munirka Vihar. On reaching the spot, police forced open the door as a portion of the latch was uprooted from inside,” he said.

Meanwhile, the JNU authorities are keeping mum over the incident, saying police is investigating the issue.