After a charge sheet was filed against three faculty members of Bengaluru’s PES University in relation to the Aditya Prabhu Suicide case, the deceased’s family were also expecting the suspension of accused faculty members by the university.
In a conversation with EdexLive, Asha Prabhu, mother of 19-year-old Aditya Prabhu, the student who died by suicide on July 2023, said “We are yet to see the complete chargesheet so we cannot comment on that. We expect that the accused will be suspended from their duties and a fair trial will take place in the court and that the guilty will be punished.”
The mother added that the institute has not reached out to the family since the charge sheet was filed and there have been no updates in this regard.
The charge sheet was filed by the Girinagar Police on October 16 against two professors — Ajay Massand and Karthik S — and controller of examination Kannan PS for abetment of suicide under IPC section 306.
The 19-year-old jumped to death at the reputed PES University in Bengaluru after being accused of cheating in an exam and facing alleged mental harassment by the management.
Conversation about student harassment
Aditya’s death has sparked a conversation about student well-being and more specifically, mental harassment being faced by students at educational institutes. The incident widely grabbed the attention of the student community after the deceased’s cousin created a social media account ‘justiceforadityaprabhu’, posting a detailed description of the incident accusing the college administration of mental harassment.
The Instagram page, which now has close to 19,000 followers, was created in July 2023 and has been engaging in conversation about students’ mental health and well-being in colleges.
“The response from students during our interaction with them through our social media platform has been overwhelming. Students have shared their experiences where they have been harassed, humiliated and disrespected by their college officials. We didn’t know that the issue was so deep-rooted and that it has become a norm in educational institutions. We definitely want to help the students in this regard,” added Aditya’s mother.
In the recent past, the family, along with Bengaluru’s social activists, has organised panel discussions and protest rallies dedicated to ending the mistreatment and harassment of students in educational institutes.
