Family of Faiz slams Sports College

LUCKNOW: Appearing before the mediapersons, family members of Faiz Alam, whose body was found near a swimming pool in Guru Gobind Singh Sports College under Gudamba police station on August 4, claimed that rampant ragging had been on in the college for the last one month. Lambasting the college authorities, Faiz's mother Shaheen andbrother Shahnawaz said: "The insensitive attitude of the college authoritiescould be gauged from the fact that even after the death of Faiz, none of theschool authorities including his coach turned up at the house or even called upto express their grief."This shows that all was not well at thecollege and claimed that under no circumstances Faiz could have gone alone tothe swimming pool. Even the sequence of events and circumstantial evidencepoints towards the same fact, they claimed. His body was spotted bythe guard of the college at around 10.30 am that day outside the swimming pool.Faiz's mother Shaheen Bano said that on August 2, when Faiz had achat with his elder brother Shahnawaz, he had told him that an attempt was madeon his life, as the nuts and bolts of the fan of his room were loosened.However, he had escaped as it was at that very moment that he had gone out ofthe room. Faiz's brother Shahnawaz said that he informed the college authoritiesbut they didn't take the matter seriously. However, they repaired the fan."I also told him to forget about the incident and concentrate oncricket," added Shahnawaz. Faiz was actually upset for the last onemonth or so regarding college affairs, said Shahnawaz, who is pursuing aveterinary course at Tanuvas University in Chennai. "I even told himnot to go to the college if he didn't want to and take admission in some otherschool," said Shaheen. However, he told her that everything will be allright.Elaborating, he said, Faiz had told him that he had beenprotesting against ragging of his juniors since he had suffered because of thiswhen he took admission in 2008. In fact, he even had a dispute with five or sixstudents, including a senior over the same issue, he claimed.According to Faiz's family members, he had come to his Indiranagarhouse on July 27 and looked upset. His mother Shaheen Bano did ask him, but didnot get any reply. This was even noticed by his neighbours, who liked himbecause he was well mannered, besides the fact that he was a good cricketer. Hisneighbour Prem Kumar had even pointed out the fact that Faiz lookedupset.For Shaheen and Shahnawaz, Faiz had been murdered and did notdrown on his own as he was actually scared of going near water forget aboutknowing swimming. The fact was also corroborated by his maternal uncle MerajKhan, a resident of Sidhauli in Sitapur district. He had said that Faiz wasafraid of going near tubewells and ponds even in the village.