By Harshal Deshpande
Hyderabad: An Assistant Professor of The English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU)-Tarnaka was reportedly found dead at his residence on Wednesday. According to the Police, the Professor died of suicide.
Wave of grief among students, faculty members
The deceased, identified as Dr. Rahul Balusu (45), worked as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computational Linguistics at EFLU, Hyderabad. The news of his demise surfaced on Wednesday sending a wave of shock and grief among the students and faculty members.
Dr. Balusu’s contribution to South Asian Linguistics was deep and immense. He was a distinguished syntactician, one of the best in the Indian Linguistics academia. He also contributed in the field of Formal Semantics and Computational Phonology. Dr. Balusu was very popular among students and faculty for his kind, generous and friendly nature.
EFLU Students’ Union released an official statement expressing their heartfelt condolences to the family, friends and students of their beloved Professor saying that his demise is a huge loss for the entire University.
Outrage over report
Many students of the Varsity expressed their concern and outrage over a report published by Telangana Today that portrayed the death of the Professor in a very insensitive and sensational manner. “Media outlets and especially the regional ones have reported it so insensitively and irresponsibly that many of us took to twitter and other social media platforms to point it out.”, a student on condition of anonymity told us. The reports by Telangana Today and various other news outlets hadviolated all the guidelines meant for suicide reporting with regard to this incident.
A case of suspicious death has been registered and is being investigated by Osmania Police station.
(There is always someone to listen at: +914066202000 or 6666 1117 in case of any emotional breakdowns at this Hyderabad-based suicide intervention centre, Roshni)
Report by Harshal Deshpande
Email- harshalddeshpande@gmail.com.