Vizag youngster’s dead body found on railway tracks in Delhi

The body of a 19-year-old lad from Vizag was found on railway tracks in Delhi on Sunday. Being considered to be a case of suicide, the body of the deceased has been brought to his residence at Maddi village in Padmanabham Mandal of the district.

The deceased was identified as Nalli Hemanth Kumar, the only child of N Venkata Govardhana Giri, a farmer from Maddi village. He was a student of National Fire Service College in Nagpur where he had joined four months before on merit.

Cause for suicide

It was revealed in the note received from his pocket and the WhatsApp message he’d sent to his father that Hemanth’s Engineering Graphics lecturer had demanded a bribe of Rs 5,000 per semester, failing which he had threatened to reduce his marks. For the course of seven semesters, the bribe amount was to add up to 35,000.

“His father is a poor farmer who finds it hard to eke out a living. Paying Rs 35,000 as a bribe to a lecturer is out of his reach. Aware of his family’s financial condition, it seems Hemanth made up his mind to kill himself, instead of losing an academic year,” Hemanth’s uncle, Prasad Kumar told The Times of India.

The news of his death was informed to the family members on Sunday, and the final rites were conducted on Tuesday in Vizag with villagers expressing their grief. Family members say that Hemanth was very good at studies and had secured over 90% marks in Class X as well as in Intermediate.

Further action 

The family demands further probing into the matter. “In the WhatsApp message which we received from Hemanth on 1 December at 11 a.m., Hemanth said that in the college, everything happens on payment of money. Most of the seats are sold for Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 3 lakh. Many genuine and talented students fail to get admission overpayment seats,” Mr Prasad was quoted as saying by The Hindu. A complaint has been lodged by Hemanth’s brother-in-law with the local police against the teacher. The family has urged the police to take strict action against the college.