Stalin condoles death of JNU student

DMK chief M K Stalin Saturday expressed grief over the death of Jawaharlal Nehru University student Rishi Joshua, a resident of Vellore district in Tamil Nadu. Joshua allegedly committed suicide Friday by hanging himself from a ceiling fan in a study room at the university, police said.

Stalin also cited deaths of two other students in the past and urged the state government to develop an institutional framework to protect its students who migrate for higher studies. "The government has to develop an institutional framework to protect students facing various issues in other states," he said in a statement.

Even in the past, Stalin said, AIIMS student Saravanan Ganesh (2016) and Delhi University college student Sharath Prabhu (2018), both residents of the state, died mysteriously. "The centre and state government did not initiate a fair probe into the deaths and try to find the reasons that are causing mental stress to the students in the national capital," he said.

The second-year MA student at JNU's English centre e-mailed a purported suicide note to his English professor before hanging himself, police said. According to police, in the six-line e-mail, Joshua wrote to his professor, "From some time, I wanted to experience the physical state of death. By the time you read the mail, I will not be in a physical state. Take care of my parents." PTI CPB BN BN.