A 16-year-old student in Kerala committed suicide on Tuesday evening, at his home in Thiruvananthapuram. Arjun, a Plus One student at Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Model School at Varkala, was found hanging in his house, and his parents have alleged that he was harassed by his school management.
Arjun’s death comes just months after the suicide of Jishnu Prannoy, an 18-year-old student of Nehru College in Pampadi. In a complaint filed at Varkala police station, Arjun’s parents alleged that their son was subjected to harassment by the school management for scoring less in an exam conducted recently. Just like in Jishnu’s case, the school management claims that Arjun had copied answers during the exam.
According to reports, the school management asked Arjun to appear for a retest in front of his parents as he didn’t score well in the exam. Later, he told his parents that if he was made to appear for a retest, he would commit suicide. “The complaint says that the harassment of school management has prompted the boy to take the extreme step,” the Sub Inspector of Varkala police station, KR Biju, told TNM. “The management held the view that Arjun copied in the exam,” he said.
Arjun was found hanging from the ceiling of his bedroom on the second floor of his house at Marakkkadamukk, Varakala on Tuesday evening. Officials said that a post-mortem will be conducted on Wednesday. Haridev, a member of school PTA told media that the association will examine whether the student was subjected to harassment, and that they will seek action accordingly.