Two-member team starts probe into Government Polytechnic student's death

KANPUR: A two-member team comprising joint director of the Directorate of Technical Education Surendra Prasad and assistant director AP Singh started probe into the suicide death of Himanshu Vishwakarma, a second-year student of Government Polytechnic on Monday and questioned the batchmates of the deceased student. Himanshu had committed suicide in his hostel room on September 3.His family alleged that Himanshu ended his life because of ragging. Even Kalyanpur police which is investigating the case in its preliminary investigation told TOI that it was a case of ragging.
The probe team gave a questionnaire to the batchmates of the deceased student and asked to them to fill it. The questionnaire had questions like whether ragging was prevalent in the polytechnic or not, were they ever ragged by senior students, if yes, then did they inform the matter to the polytechnic authorities and what action was initiated by the administration and the anti-ragging committee. A total nine questions were asked to which the students replied and signed at the bottom of the questionnaire.
The probe team said that the identity of the students who had filled the questionnaire would not be revealed. Importantly, these questionnaires were served to the first year students of different trades like electronics, civil engineering etc. "This exercise was done to know about the life on the polytechnic campus. We are investigating on all the angles", said the joint director while talking to TOI. Though the official did not reveal what response were given by the students in the questionnaire but he said that students had given clues to the investigation. "We spoke in detail to the students who could give us any clue. We will reach to a meaningful conclusion", said Surendra Prasad.
Meanwhile, the eight-member team formed by Government Polytechnic authorities to investigate the charges of ragging could not submit its report as some of the students who had to be investigated in the matter have not turned up. Principal of Government Polytechnic F R Khan said that five students with name a name matching that of those have been identified. The family members of the deceased student had named Vijay and Kiran who had beat him up. Khan said that all students with name Vijay had been asked to remain present during the probe but nobody turned up on the campus. Therefore, letters have been dispatched to their parents asking them to be present with their wards on the campus and to assist in the probe, he said.