KURNOOL: An MBBS fresher allegedly committed suicide at the Kurnool Medical College (KMC) by hanging himself in his hostel room on Thursday night. Komma Harsha Pranith Reddy’s parents suspect it was ragging at the hands of senior students that drove their son to take the extreme step.
Surveillance camera footage showed the youth from Kasanuru village in Simhadripuram mandal of Kadapa district going into room number 17 of the college’s hostel at 11.29 pm. After a few minutes, one of his friends knocked on Harsha’s door to ask him for some study material, but the 19-year-old did not respond. Worried, the friend alerted other classmates.
They found the teen hanging from a ceiling fan when they prised open the room’s windows. The students broke open the door immediately and rushed him to a nearby private hospital from where he was moved to Kurnool Government General Hospital. Doctors there declared him brought dead. On being alerted, police visited the hospital and college hostel.A case of suspicious death has been registered based on a complaint filed by the victim’s father K Ramanjulu Reddy.
“Harsha was a brilliant student. He would never commit suicide due to the burden of studies. My son was complaining of ragging in the college ever since he joined,” the father said. Meanwhile, KMC principal Dr. GVS Ram Prasad told reporters that the boy was unable to prepare well for the exams due in four days and may have taken his life for fear of performing poorly. “Ragging complaints are heard at the beginning of the academic year. As year-end exams are to commence from July 10, both seniors, as well as juniors, were engrossed in their studies,” he explained, “The question of ragging simply does not arise.”