Muthukrishanan Jeevanantham, a Dalit MPhil scholar from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in New Delhi was to return to his Salem home later this week. His family was happy and eagerly awaiting his arrival. But on Monday night, at around 7pm, they received a call from JNU telling them that their only son had killed himself at a friend’s house in Delhi.
Shattered and in disbelief, Muthukrishanan’s family is unable to come to terms that their 27-year-old could kill himself. Between sobs, his grieving mother Alamelu says, “My son can never commit suicide. I spoke to him on Saturday night and he said that he will come and meet me this week. He was like a king at home. Even if someone scolded him, he will just smile and walk away. How can such a person kill himself?”
Born to a poor family, Muthukrishanan’s parents – Jeevanantham and Alamelu work as daily wage workers in Salem. With a dream of becoming an IAS officer, Muthukrishanan’s story is one of hard work and determination, having applied to JNU three times for the MA programme, and twice for the MPhil/Phd course before finally being admitted last year.
“He was a very bright student and my parents have worked very hard for him. He had got admission into JNU on merit,” says Jayanthi, his younger sister.
The last time she spoke to her brother was on Saturday morning when Muthukrishanan had called Jayanthi too wish her luck for an examination.
She says, “He asked me to do well in the examination and promised me that he will be coming to meet us this week. He was supposed to come last week but he was held up as he had some project work so he cannot come.”
Demanding a CBI probe into his death, his sister says, “We definitely want a CBI investigation in the case. My brother had gone to his friend’s house for Holi on Monday afternoon. How is it possible that no one knew he had locked himself in a room for two hours from 2pm to 4pm? We suspect it to be a murder.”
Muthukrishanan was found hanging at around 5pm at his friend’s place at Munrika Vihar in Delhi. A police team had to force open the door of the room, where he had locked himself in. He had gone to his friend’s house for lunch and later said he wanted to sleep. When he did not respond to his friend’s call in the evening, the police were called in.
Calling it a murder, Muthukrishanan’s uncle Manikandan says, “One of our relatives is in Delhi told us that the cloth with which Muthukrishanan has allegedly killed himself, cannot be used to hang himself. We suspect that he was strangulated to death.”
Reports suggest that the JNU student hung himself using a blanket.
Jayanthi also demanded to know what took authorities so long to call the family about Muthukrishanan’s death as they were informed at around 7pm, nearly two hours after he was found hanging. “Why were we informed so late? My parents were at work and we got a call from the JNU university principal,” she asks.
His sister, however, adds that Muthukrishanan never spoke to her about the problems he faced in college.
Following the news of his death, Muthukrishanan’s father and two relatives left for New Delhi to collect his body.
However, N Praveen Kumari, District Secretary of Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) from Salem claims that the family will not accept the dead body until an investigation is ordered into his death. He added that the Student Union will organise protest in JNU against Muthukrishanan’s death.