Hindu College

New Delhi/Shillong, April 28: Four days after the death of Meghalaya girl Dana Silva M. Sangma on a college campus, another student from the Northeast has committed suicide in the capital. Samiran Saikia, 19, from Assam who was pursuing BSc (Hons) in botany at Hindu College under Delhi University was found hanging from the ceiling of the apartment he lived in this morning.

There is no conclusive evidence why he took the drastic step as he did not leave any suicide note but police believe Saikia was worried about his upcoming exams.

The police said they received a call from the students he shared the apartment with around 11.40 this morning. “Saikia’s roommates told us that he had not been talking to anyone for the past few days. He had an exam yesterday and another one today. We do not suspect any foul play,” deputy commissioner of police, North East district, Meenu Chaudhary, said.

Saikia used to live in Vijay Nagar, a locality next to Delhi University, where a majority of the students reside. He used to share the apartment with three others. Yesterday, he was alone in his room, as one of the students had gone to his native place and the other two were in another room. They found him hanging from the ceiling this morning.

The acting principal of Hindu College, Pradyumn Kumar, said, “It is sad and unfortunate that a student had to commit suicide. Although no teacher had ever reported any problem about Samiran Saikia, we take extra care when it comes to students from the Northeast. We have a Northeast cell in our college. We also have a deputy dean for Northeast (students) in our university.” He said Saikia’s parents and elder brother stay in Sonitpur district of Assam. They were yet to reach Delhi.

Dana case

On Tuesday, Meghalaya chief minister Mukul Sangma’s niece, Dana, who was studying MBA at Amity University in Gurgaon, was found hanging in her hostel room after she was accused of cheating during her second semester examination.

Sangma will leave for New Delhi tomorrow where he is expected to meet government officials to take up the issue of discrimination against people from the Northeast in Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR). He will also take up the suicide case with the National Commission for Scheduled Caste and Tribes.

Sangma had said on Wednesday that his niece was a brilliant student.

He alleged that mental harassment by the university authorities had compelled her to commit suicide.

Dana had studied in Sherwood School in Tura and graduated from Central IT College in Guwahati.

In what were perhaps her last written words before she left this world, she had written in the form for reporting cases or acts of unfair means adopted by candidate/or disorderly conduct of examination: “I wrote my answers on my own. The answers were not copied from anything. I studied well for this exam”.

Dana’s words were written on the same form where a report was filed by invigilator Suprio Ghatak: “Found mobile phone in On mode in pocket”. The two words “in pocket” were underlined twice.

As part of the investigations, Gurgaon police have sent Dana’s answersheet to the forensic lab for examination. “Dana’s answersheet has been sent to the forensic laboratory at Madhuban to clarify who wrote what on it and to check for other details,” sources in Gurgaon police said.

The National Commission for Women is investigating the case to ascertain what led the 21-year-old to hang herself. An inquiry committee has been constituted under NCW member Wansuk Syiem. Its other members comprise Shamina Shafiq (NCW member), Pooja Chandra (Supreme Court advocate) and Kuljeet Kaur (All India Women’s Conference member). The team had visited the university yesterday to meet the vice-chancellor, the pro-vice-chancellor, students, Dana’s roommate and others. The committee, which will also meet the girl’s family, has been asked to submit a preliminary report within 10 days.

On Wednesday, Dana’s family had filed an FIR with Gurgaon police incorporating provisions of the act related to atrocities against Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes in addition to IPC clauses. Gurgaon police have registered a case under the SC/ST Act and other relevant sections of the IPC against the staff and management of Amity University in connection with Dana’s death.