Rohit’s family members at Apollo Burns Hospital in Patna City on Wednesday. Picture by Jai Prakash

A 20-year-old engineering student set himself on fire on Wednesday morning at his home in the Sultanpur area of Danapur allegedly after being harassed by his three teachers.

Rushed to Apollo Burns Hospital at Patna City in a critical condition, Rohit Gupta gained consciousness briefly and told police that he had taken the extreme step because three teachers of Netaji Subhash Institute of Technology were harass- ing him.

A second-year computer science student of the institute, Rohit suffered 80 per cent burns. Doctors at the hospital told The Telegraph that his condition was critical.

The authorities of the tech institute, which is affiliated to Aryabhatt Knowledge University, Patna, refuted the budding techie’s accusation. They claimed that he had tried to commit suicide because of a failed love affair.

A police officer told The Telegraph: “Rohit, the son of businessman Hareshwari Prasad, had gone for a walk this morning. He returned home around 7am, requested his father to make tea and went into his room. When Hareshwari went to give him his teacup, the former saw smoke billowing out of the room. The father thought that the computer in the room had caught fire and tried to open the door. When he found the door locked, he raised an alarm and called the other family members. They broke open the door and found that Rohit had set himself on fire.”

The officer added: “They rushed him to Danapur sub-divisional hospital, from where he was referred him to Apollo Burns Hospital.”

In the hospital, Rohit gained consciousness for sometime and told the Agamkuan police that three teachers at his institute — Vijay, Pushkar Kumar and Shipra — were harassing him. “Before he could mention the nature of the harassment, he lost consciousness. His statement has been taken down and forwarded to Danapur police station, where an FIR will be lodged,” said the police officer. Rohit did not write a suicide note.

Krishna Murari, the registrar of the institute, refuted the allegation. He said: “Rohit was weak in studies but was improving with the help of his teachers. He had not been attending classes since April 11. We have learnt that he tried to commit suicide earlier as well because of some girl.”

Murari added: “The computer science department has three teachers for the second-year. It is not possible that all of them were harassing him.”