Hyderabad, February 06: Gloom turned into righteous indignation today at the residence of G Varalakshmi, a first year B.Tech student of a private engineering college who succumbed to burn injuries on Wednesday, at Lashkarguda in Hayatnagar. The cause of anger was minister Botsa Satyanarayana’s remarks that the girl had died in a cylinder blast and did not commit suicide as claimed by her parents.
As scores of politicians visited the house and consoled them, the bereaved parents kept reiterating that their daughter had committed suicide unable to bear the harassment of college management for not paying the fee and denying her the hall-ticket.
“Had the government not raised hopes about fee reimbursement, my daughter would not have been to college at all,” Varalakshmi’s father Jangaiah lamented.
Jangaiah is a watchman and his wife Lakshmamma is a sweeper. The poor SC family had pinned their hopes on the government’s fee reimbursement scheme to see their daughter as an engineer.
The minister made an irresponsible statement. Had there been a blast, how could the small house remain in tact? asked her relatives. “My daughter locked herself inside, poured kerosene and set herself ablaze,” said Jangaiah.
Varalakshmi had three elder brothers. “My sister committed suicide unable to digest that she could not appear for the first year examinations, as the college management denied her the hall ticket for not paying the fee,” Varalakshmi’s brother complained.
Jagan flays govt
YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, who consoled the bereaved family, attacked the State government for not reimbursing the fee for the last one year. “The state government is diverting the issue by stating that Varalakshmi died in an accident. It is sheer injustice to her,” Jagan said.
Minister sticks to his stand
Meanwhile, Satyanarayana stuck to his stand of accidental death. Varalakshmi herself had stated this before a magistrate in the dying declaration, the minister pointed out. He, however, hastened to add that the probe would bring out the facts.
The Cabinet sub-committee would meet on Feb 11 to review the fee reimbursement scheme, he said.
DCP to probe the death
Meanwhile, Cyberabad police commissioner Ch Dwaraka Tirumala Rao said that the Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) had been asked to investigate the death of Varalakshmi. “Immediately after the incident Varalakshmi gave statements to the police and the magistrate. In both the statements she said that she suffered burn injuries because of a cylinder blast. But her family members are giving a different version,” Tirumala Rao said.
Doctors clueless
Meanwhile, doctors in Gandhi hospital, who conducted postmortem on Varalakshmi, couldn’t arrive at a conclusion on the manner of death. “In cases of burn injuries we cannot say whether it is a case of suicide or accident,” Surender Reddy, who conducted the postmortem, said.
‘It is suicide’
Meanwhile, a fact-finding committee of the APCLC stated that Varalakshmi had committed suicide. There was no evidence that the student had died in an accident involving a gas cylinder blast, the report said.
APCLC Hyderabad unit president Jella Lingaiah demanded action against the college management under the SC,ST Atrocities (Prevention) Act.
—Agencies